  We study two two-level atomic quantum systems (qubits) placed close to a body
held at a temperature different from that of the surrounding walls. While at
thermal equilibrium the two-qubit dynamics is characterized by not entangled
steady thermal states, we show that absence of thermal equilibrium may bring to
the generation of entangled steady states. Remarkably, this entanglement
emerges from the two-qubit dissipative dynamic itself, without any further
external action on the two qubits, suggesting a new protocol to produce and
protect entanglement which is intrinsically robust to environmental effects.
