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arXiv:2306.04918 · Physics Letters B

Spin entanglement in neutron-proton scattering

Dong Bai

Published Sep 1, 2023• 23 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In this Letter, I work out spin entanglement properties of neutron-proton scattering using the exact S-matrix, considering both S-wave and higher partial wave contributions. The dependence of spin entanglement on momentum, scattering angle, and initial spin configuration is investigated for realistic nuclear forces, while low-energy properties of spin entanglement are analyzed within the framework of pionless effective field theory at leading order. New connections are found between spin entanglement and symmetry emergence of strong interactions. These results lead to a more complete understanding of how spin entanglement is generated via neutron-proton interaction. They also lay the theoretical foundation for controllable production of entangled nucleon-nucleon pairs in future experiments.

DOI
10.1016/j.physletb.2023.138162

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In this Letter, I work out spin entanglement properties of neutron-proton scattering using the exact S-matrix, considering both S-wave and higher partial wave contributions. The dependence of spin entanglement on momentum, scattering angle, and initial spin configuration is investigated for realistic nuclear forces, while low-energy properties of spin entanglement are analyzed within the framework of pionless effective field theory at leading order. New connections are found between spin entanglement and symmetry emergence of strong interactions. These results lead to a more complete understanding of how spin entanglement is generated via neutron-proton interaction. They also lay the theoretical foundation for controllable production of entangled nucleon-nucleon pairs in future experiments.
We study the connection between accidental symmetries in the nuclear interaction and spin entanglement in two-nucleon scattering. Specifically, we incorporate different levels of Wigner SU(4) and Serber symmetries into leading-order potentials derived from chiral effective field theory. We conduct a quantitative analysis by computing the full S matrix, demonstrating that the neutron-proton spin entanglement can be related to the symmetry properties of the interaction and the presence of certain operators and partial waves. Furthermore, we study the order-by-order evolution of the spin entanglement, up to next-to-next-to-leading order in Weinberg power counting, for both neutron-proton and neutron-neutron scattering. Entanglement suppression is not observed in neutron-neutron scattering, which can be attributed to the Pauli principle and the absence of accidental symmetries in this system. We conclude that entanglement is a useful guide for studying the power counting and symmetries in nuclear interactions derived from effective field theories.
The entanglement properties of neutron-proton scattering are investigated using a measure that counts the number of entangled pairs produced by the action of a scattering operator on a given initial neutron-proton state. All phase shifts relevant for scattering at laboratory energies up to 350 MeV are used. Entanglement is found to depend strongly on the initial state. Entanglement is maximized in very low energy scattering if the initial spin state is $|\ensuremath{\uparrow}\ensuremath{\downarrow}\ensuremath{\rangle}$, but not if the initial state is $|\ensuremath{\uparrow}\ensuremath{\uparrow}\ensuremath{\rangle}$. At such energies the Hamiltonian obeys Wigner SU(4) symmetry, and an entanglement maximum is a sign of that symmetry. At higher energies the angular dependence of entanglement is strong and the entanglement is large for many scattering angles. The tensor force is shown to play a significant role in producing entanglement at laboratory kinetic energies greater than about 50 MeV.
Abstract Generation of an entangled spin state as a result of a low-energy elastic collision of two protons is considered. The scattering process is described by a theoretical model that is in good agreement with the available experimental data on the angular differential cross sections of proton–proton collisions at low energies. The entanglement of the spin state of final protons as a function of the scattering angle is analyzed using Bell’s inequality and pair concurrence. The numerical results for different values of the collision energy are compared with the results without considering nuclear forces. It is shown that nuclear interaction significantly enhances the effects of spin entanglement.
Nucleon-nucleon scattering is a fundamental process in low-energy nuclear physics. Although its spin correlations have been studied intensively, few works take the perspective of quantum information science. In this work, I explore the quantum information aspects of spin correlations in the partially polarized neutron-proton scattering in the SSS wave. It is found that the spin mutual information, entanglement and discord of the out-states, when averaged over the possible in-states, all vary in a similar way with respect to the relative momentum. The novel connection between emergent symmetry and spin entanglement found by a previous study [Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 102001 (2019)] could then be extended naturally to spin correlations beyond entanglement.
We investigate spin entanglement generated in neutron–proton scattering by evaluating the concurrence from the scattered two-nucleon density matrix. While previous studies mainly discussed pure initial spin states, the present work extends the analysis to polarization-induced mixed states, including partially polarized and unpolarized cases, within a unified framework. Initial polarization directions along the x, y, and [Formula: see text] axes are considered. Here, the [Formula: see text] axis is along the incident momentum, the y axis is normal to the scattering plane, and the x axis completes a right-handed system. We then examine the dependence of the concurrence on the incident energy, scattering angle, polarization degree, and polarization direction. The results show that the angular dependence of the concurrence becomes more pronounced as the incident energy increases. Although the concurrence tends to decrease overall as the polarization degree is reduced, this behavior is not uniform over all scattering angles, and in some regions unpolarized mixed states yield larger concurrence than fully polarized pure states. The concurrence is also found to be sensitive to the initial polarization direction. These features indicate that the entanglement generated in neutron–proton scattering reflects the interference structure of the scattering amplitudes. The present framework provides a basis for discussing spin entanglement under more realistic experimental conditions beyond pure-state idealizations.
We investigate polarization states of the outgoing neutron-proton (npnpnp) pair in elastic polarized neutron and proton scattering, aiming to find unambiguous evidence for entanglement of their spin states. To obtain complete information about these states, we calculate, using the high precision nucleon-nucleon potential AV18, the final polarizations of the neutron and proton as well as their spin correlation coefficients, which unequivocally define the corresponding spin density matrix. We compute all terms contributing to polarizations and spin correlations, e.g. not only induced polarizations and correlations resulting from unpolarized npnpnp scattering, but also contributions from single polarization and correlation transfers from individual polarized incoming nucleons, and, for the first time, allotment to both quantities stemming from a doubly spin polarized initial state. We find that for the most part the final spin states are statistical mixture of states.The only pure states occur for highly polarized incoming neutrons and protons with maximal polarizations. By quantifying the degree of entanglement through entanglement power and concurrence, we observed that the entanglement of impure final states increases with energy. Among the pure spin states resulting from incoming states with maximal neutron and proton polarizations, we found, at Elab=100E_{lab}=100Elab​=100~MeV, cases of strongly entangled Bell-type states with only a small admixture of entanglement-spoiling contributions.