Physical Review A
Measures of electronic-vibrational entanglement and quantum coherence in a molecular system
Mihaela Vatasescu
Abstract
We characterize both entanglement and quantum coherence in a molecular system by connecting the linear entropy of electronic-nuclear entanglement with Wigner-Yanase skew information measuring vibronic coherence and local quantum uncertainty on electronic energy. Linear entropy of entanglement and quantifiers of quantum coherence are derived for a molecular system described in a bipartite Hilbert space $\mathcal{H}={\mathcal{H}}_{el}⨂{\mathcal{H}}_{vib}$ of finite dimension ${N}_{el}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{N}_{v}$, and relations between them are established. For the specific case of the electronic-vibrational entanglement, we find the linear entropy of entanglement as having a more complex informational content than the von Neumann entropy. By keeping the information carried by the vibronic coherences in a molecule, linear entropy seizes vibrational motion in the electronic potentials as entanglement dynamics. We analyze entanglement oscillations in an isolated molecule, and show examples for the control of entanglement dynamics in a molecule through the creation of coherent vibrational wave packets in several electronic potentials by using chirped laser pulses.