Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:2608.30356

Quantum information in neutron-proton scattering from the $M$ matrix

Linjun Xie, Jinniu Hu, Ying Zhang, Hong Shen

nucl-thquant-phSubmitted Aug 31, 2026• Announced Sep 1, 2026• 1 citation
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We study quantum-information aspects of neutron--proton scattering in the spin-space $M$-matrix framework. Four representative classes of input states are considered, namely diagonal mixed states, separable pure states, general two-qubit pure states, and a special Schmidt-like entangled subclass. For each class, ensemble-averaged output mutual information, reduced-state linear entropy, negativity, and geometric quantum discord are calculated in the relative momentum-- scattering angle plane. The results show that the outgoing spin correlations are governed jointly by scattering kinematics and by the structure of the incoming quantum ensemble. Input states with stronger intrinsic coherence or entanglement give larger maxima and higher minima in the mutual information, negativity, and geometric quantum discord. The enhanced regions of the mutual information and geometric discord depend on the input states, while the negativity maximum remains concentrated in the high-momentum backward-scattering region. These results extend earlier studies based on product-state entanglement power and provide an ensemble-based description of how spin correlations in neutron--proton scattering arise from the interplay between input-state structure and scattering dynamics.

Comments
24 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, has been accepted by Physical Review C

Related papers

Quantum information in nucleon-nucleon scattering

Dong Bai

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 $S$ 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.

Physical Review C•Apr 21, 2023•13 citations

Concurrence in Neutron–Proton Scattering for Polarization-Induced Mixed States

Hina Matsufuji, Hiroki Nishibata, Hideyuki SAKAI +1 more

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.

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan•Aug 6, 2026•0 citations

Searching for entanglement in final polarization states of neutron-proton scattering

Henryk Witała, J. Golak, R. Skibiński

We investigate polarization states of the outgoing neutron-proton ($np$) 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 $np$ 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 ${E}_{\mathrm{lab}}=100$ MeV, cases of strongly entangled Bell-type states with only a small admixture of entanglement-spoiling contributions.

Physical Review C•Sep 15, 2025•8 citations

Searching for entanglement in final polarization states of the neutron-proton scattering

Henryk Witała, J. Golak, R. Skibiński

We investigate polarization states of the outgoing neutron-proton ($np$) 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 $np$ 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 $E_{lab}=100$~MeV, cases of strongly entangled Bell-type states with only a small admixture of entanglement-spoiling contributions.

arXiv:2505.14401•May 20, 2025•0 citations

Spin entanglement in neutron-proton scattering

Dong Bai

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.

arXiv:2306.04918•Physics Letters B•Sep 1, 2023•23 citations

Entanglement study in the island of inversion region using an ab initio approach

Rohit M. Shinde, P. C. Srivastava

Quantum entanglement provides a unique perspective for probing nuclear structure. In this work, we employ quantum entanglement measures, including proton-neutron entanglement entropy, mutual information, and quantum relative entropy, to investigate the evolution of entanglement patterns as we approach neutron-rich nuclei. The study is carried out in the vicinity of the $N=20$ island of inversion region consisting of even-$A$ Ne, Mg, and Si isotopes, and also for isotones corresponding to $N=20$. The state-of-the-art \textit{ab initio} valence space in-medium similarity renormalization group method has been used for this purpose. We have highlighted the role of proton-neutron entanglement entropy in the formation of the island of inversion region. Mutual information provides insight into the strength of correlations between proton-proton, neutron-neutron, and proton-neutron single-particle states. While these correlations are relatively weak between protons and neutrons in the ground states, they become comparable to like-particle correlations in excited states. The quantum relative entropy is also studied between $0^+$ and $2^+$ states of the Ne, Mg, and Si isotopes, as well as $N=20$ isotones, using the Kullback-Leibler divergence and Jensen-Shannon divergence. We have performed these calculations by expressing the nuclear wavefunctions in a Slater-determinant basis and analyzing them through complementary partitions, including proton-neutron and mode-resolved factorizations.

arXiv:2601.06544•Physical Review C•May 14, 2026•1 citation
Quantum information in neutron-proton scattering from the MMM matrix
We study quantum-information aspects of neutron--proton scattering in the spin-space MMM-matrix framework. Four representative classes of input states are considered, namely diagonal mixed states, separable pure states, general two-qubit pure states, and a special Schmidt-like entangled subclass. For each class, ensemble-averaged output mutual information, reduced-state linear entropy, negativity, and geometric quantum discord are calculated in the relative momentum-- scattering angle plane. The results show that the outgoing spin correlations are governed jointly by scattering kinematics and by the structure of the incoming quantum ensemble. Input states with stronger intrinsic coherence or entanglement give larger maxima and higher minima in the mutual information, negativity, and geometric quantum discord. The enhanced regions of the mutual information and geometric discord depend on the input states, while the negativity maximum remains concentrated in the high-momentum backward-scattering region. These results extend earlier studies based on product-state entanglement power and provide an ensemble-based description of how spin correlations in neutron--proton scattering arise from the interplay between input-state structure and scattering dynamics.
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=100{E}_{\mathrm{lab}}=100Elab​=100 MeV, cases of strongly entangled Bell-type states with only a small admixture of entanglement-spoiling contributions.
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.
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.
Quantum entanglement provides a unique perspective for probing nuclear structure. In this work, we employ quantum entanglement measures, including proton-neutron entanglement entropy, mutual information, and quantum relative entropy, to investigate the evolution of entanglement patterns as we approach neutron-rich nuclei. The study is carried out in the vicinity of the N=20N=20N=20 island of inversion region consisting of even-AAA Ne, Mg, and Si isotopes, and also for isotones corresponding to N=20N=20N=20. The state-of-the-art \textit{ab initio} valence space in-medium similarity renormalization group method has been used for this purpose. We have highlighted the role of proton-neutron entanglement entropy in the formation of the island of inversion region. Mutual information provides insight into the strength of correlations between proton-proton, neutron-neutron, and proton-neutron single-particle states. While these correlations are relatively weak between protons and neutrons in the ground states, they become comparable to like-particle correlations in excited states. The quantum relative entropy is also studied between 0+0^+0+ and 2+2^+2+ states of the Ne, Mg, and Si isotopes, as well as N=20N=20N=20 isotones, using the Kullback-Leibler divergence and Jensen-Shannon divergence. We have performed these calculations by expressing the nuclear wavefunctions in a Slater-determinant basis and analyzing them through complementary partitions, including proton-neutron and mode-resolved factorizations.