Quantum entanglement in helium-like ions

Y.-C. Lin, Chih‐Yuan Lin, Y. K. Ho

Recently, there has been considerable interest in investigating quantum entanglement in two-electron systems, such as two-electron model atoms and quantum dots. In this work, the quantum entanglement of the helium atom and helium-like ions are explored using the two-electron wave functions constructed by the $B$-spline basis. As a measure of the spatial entanglement, the linear entropy of the reduced density matrix is investigated for the ground state and the singlet excited $1sn{s}^{1}S$ states, with $n=2$--10, of the helium atom. The variation of the spatial entanglement with the nuclear charges $Z=2$--15 for the helium-like ions is reported. Results are compared with the existing predictions.

Tobias Schaetz

Y.-C. Lin, Y. K. Ho

Quantum entanglement for two electrons in the excited states of helium-like atom or ions is investigated using two-electron wave functions constructed in the B-spline basis. As a measure of spatial (electron – electron orbital) entanglement, the von Neumann entropy and linear entropy of the reduced density matrix are calculated for the 1s2s 1,3S excited states for systems with some selected Z values from Z = 2 to 100. Results for the helium atom are compared with other available calculations. We have also investigated the entropies for these excited states when the nucleus charge is reduced from Z = 2 continuously to Z = 1. At such a critical charge, all the singly excited states of this system become unbound, and the linear entropies and the von Neumann entropies for the excited states approach 1/2 and 1, respectively; the limits for the entropies when one electron is bound to the nucleus, and the other is free.

J. I. Cirac

Diego C. B. Valente, Robin Côté

Przemysław Kościk, Anna Okopińska

We examine the entanglement in the ground states of helium and helium-like ions using an original Hylleraas expansion. The von Neumann and linear entropies of the reduced density matrix are accurately computed by performing the Schmidt decomposition of the S singlet spatial wavefunctions. The results presented are more accurate than currently available in published literature.