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arXiv:1108.3504 · Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields

Spatial entanglement and massive neutrino oscillations produced by orbital electron capture decay

I. M. Pavlichenkov

Published Oct 11, 2011• 2 citations

Abstract

The two-particle wave function of neutrino and recoil nucleus is found as a solution of an initial-value problem in the far zone for a time longer than the electron capture decay lifetime of a hydrogenlike ion. The neutrino-recoil entanglement arising in such a process is a consequence of the momentum conservation and is closely related to the wave packet structure of the state. Because of neutrino mixing, the joint wave packet involves the coherent superposition of the neutrino mass eigenstate packets. This is the new physical realization of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen thought experiment, which has no analogue in quantum optics and quantum informatics. A class of possible experiments for the registration of a neutrino and a recoil nucleus is proposed. It is shown that, due to spatial correlations, neutrino and recoil oscillations can be observed in the coincidence experiment.

DOI: 10.1103/physrevd.84.073005

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The two-particle wave function of neutrino and recoil nucleus is found as a solution of an initial-value problem in the far zone for a time longer than the electron capture decay lifetime of a hydrogenlike ion. The neutrino-recoil entanglement arising in such a process is a consequence of the momentum conservation and is closely related to the wave packet structure of the state. Because of neutrino mixing, the joint wave packet involves the coherent superposition of the neutrino mass eigenstate packets. This is the new physical realization of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen thought experiment, which has no analogue in quantum optics and quantum informatics. A class of possible experiments for the registration of a neutrino and a recoil nucleus is proposed. It is shown that, due to spatial correlations, neutrino and recoil oscillations can be observed in the coincidence experiment.

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The narrowing of electron and ion wave packets in the process of photoionization is investigated, with the electron-ion recoil taken fully into account. Packet localization of this type is directly related to entanglement in the joint quantum state of the electron and ion, and to Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen localization. Experimental observation of such packet-narrowing effects is suggested via coincidence registration by two detectors, with a fixed position of one and varying position of the other. A similar effect, typically with an enhanced degree of entanglement, is shown to occur in the case of photodissociation of molecules.