We consider a pair of three-level atoms interacting with the vacuum. The process of disentanglement due to spontaneous emission and the role of quantum interference between principal transitions in this process, are analysed. We show that the presence of interference can slow down disentanglement. In the limit of maximal interference, some part of initial entanglement can survive.

We characterize violation of CHSH inequalities for mixed two-qubit states by their mixedness and entanglement. The class of states that have maximum degree of CHSH violation for a given linear entropy is also constructed.

We consider a pair of three -level atoms interacting with a common vacuum and analyze the process of entanglement production due to spontaneous emission. We show that in the case of closely separated atoms, collective damping can generate robust entanglement of the asymptotic states.SHORT TITLE: Stationary entanglement between three -level atoms PACS numbers: 03.67. Mn, 03.65.Yz,

For a class of mixed two -qubit states we show that it is not possible to discriminate between states violating or non -violating Bell -CHSH inequalities, knowing only their entanglement and mixedness. For a large set of possible values of these quantities, we construct pairs of states with the same entanglement and mixedness such that one state is violating but the other is non -violating Bell -CHSH inequality.

The dynamics of entanglement between three -level atoms coupled to the common vacuum is investigated. We show that the collective effects such as collective damping, dipole -dipole interaction and the cross coupling between orthogonal dipoles, play a crucial role in the process of creation of entanglement. In particular, the additional cross coupling enhances the production of entanglement. For the specific initial states we find that the effect of delayed sudden birth of entanglement, recently invented by Ficek and Tanaś [Phys. Rev. A 77, 054301(2008)] in the case of two -level atoms, can also be observed in the system. When the initial state is entangled, the process of spontaneous emission causes destruction of correlations and its disentanglement. We show that the robustness of initial entanglement against the noise can be changed by local operations performed on the state.