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arXiv:2512.21228 · Journal of High Energy Physics

Quantum entanglement between partons in a strongly coupled quantum field theory

Wenyu Zhang, Wenyang Qian, Yiyu Zhou, Yang Li, Qun Wang

hep-phhep-thnucl-thquant-phSubmitted Dec 24, 2025• Announced Dec 25, 2025• 1 citation• Revised Apr 1, 2026 (v2)
v1 · Dec 24, 2025v2 · Apr 1, 2026v3 · May 17, 2026
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Abstract

We perform a first-principles, non-perturbative investigation of quantum entanglement between partonic constituents in a strongly coupled 3+1-dimensional scalar Yukawa theory, using light-front Hamiltonian methods with controlled Fock-space truncations. By explicitly constructing reduced density matrices for (mock) nucleon, pion, and anti-nucleon subsystems from light-front wave functions, we compute key entanglement witnesses, including von Neumann entropy, mutual information, and linear entropy, in both quenched (no sea pairs) and unquenched frameworks. We find that the entanglement entropy is closely related to the Shannon entropy of the transverse momentum dependent distribution, establishing a link between quantum information and parton structure. In contrast, the unquenched theory reveals genuinely non-classical correlations: the entanglement entropy cannot be reduced to any Shannon entropy of normalized parton distributions, demonstrating that the full hadronic wave function encodes quantum information beyond classical probabilities. Our findings highlight the role of entanglement as a fundamental probe of non-perturbative dynamics in relativistic quantum field theory and lay the groundwork for extending these concepts to QCD and future collider phenomenology.

Journal reference
JHEP 07(2026) 061
DOI
10.1007/JHEP07(2026)061
Comments
35 pages, 10 figures

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