Role of the counter-rotating terms in the creation of entanglement between two atoms

The problem of the creation of entanglement exclusively from the presence of the counter-rotating terms in the interaction Hamiltonian between two atoms and a single-mode cavity field is studied. The time evolution of the concurrence between the atoms is discussed for two different initial separable states and arbitrary strengths of the coupling constants of the atoms to the cavity mode. We show that a transient entanglement can be created between the atoms only if the counter-rotating terms are taken into account in the interaction Hamiltonian. The source of the entanglement is identified, and the entanglement features are explained in terms of the properties of the reduced density operator of the atoms. In particular, we find that the main source of the entanglement is in the two-photon coherence induced by the counter-rotating terms that cause two-photon transitions through virtual states.