We analyze how entanglement is generated and distributed in a Bhabha scattering process
(e−e+→e−e+) at tree level. In our setup an electron
A scatters with a positron
B, which is initially entangled with another electron
C (spectator), that does not participate directly to the process. We find that the QED scattering generates and distributes entanglement in a non-trivial way among the three particles: the correlations in the output channels
AB,
AC and
BC are studied in detail as functions of the scattering parameters and of the initial entanglement weight. Although derived in a specific case, our results exhibit some general features of other similar QED scattering processes, for which the extension of the present analysis is straightforward.
From the perspective of quantum information science, we investigate tree-level Bhabha scattering between an incident electron
A and a positron
B, where
B is initially entangled with a spectator electron
C, which does not participate in the scattering interaction. We find that the quantum electrodynamics (QED) scattering between
A and
B can drive the global
ABC system into a genuine tripartite entangled (GTE) state. Using four canonical tripartite entanglement metrics, we systematically characterize and quantify the GTE of the composite system, and demonstrate that the scattering momentum of the
A-
B pair and the initial
B-
C entanglement are the key resources governing GTE generation. We further analyze the monogamy of quantum correlations, which imposes fundamental constraints on the shareability of quantum resources in multipartite systems. Specifically, we systematically study the monogamy relations for the squared entanglement of formation and squared quantum discord in our scattering model, and find that monogamy constraints are markedly relaxed in the non-relativistic regime, enabling enhanced shareability of quantum correlations across the three particles. This work uncovers novel quantum correlation properties of fundamental QED scattering processes, and provides direct theoretical guidance for the development of QED-based quantum information processing protocols.
We exploit the complete complementarity relations (CCR) to fully characterize various aspects of quantumness in quantum electrodynamics (QED) scattering processes at tree level. As a paradigmatic example, we consider Bhabha scattering in two different configurations: in the first case, the initial state is factorized in the spin and we study the generation of entanglement due to the scattering. Then we consider the most general case in which the initial state can be entangled: we find that the scattering generates and distributes quantum information in a nontrivial way among the spin degrees of freedom of the particles, with CCR relations being preserved. An important outcome of our analysis is that maximal entanglement is conserved in the scattering process involving only fermions as input and output states, with a more complex situation if photons are present.
We consider a general quantum field relativistic scattering involving two half-spin fermions,
A and
B, which are initially entangled with another fermion
C that does not participate in the scattering dynamics. We construct general expressions for the reduced spin matrices for the out-state considering a general tripartite spin-entangled state. In particular we study an inelastic QED process at tree-level, namely ${e}^{\ensuremath{-}}{e}^{+}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\ensuremath{\mu}}^{\ensuremath{-}}{\ensuremath{\mu}}^{+}$ and a half-spin fermion
C as a spectator particle which can be entangled to the
AB system in the following ways: W state, GHZ state, $|{\mathrm{A}}^{\ensuremath{\alpha}}⟩\ensuremath{\bigotimes}|{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Psi}}}^{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}{⟩}_{\mathrm{BC}}$, and $|{\mathrm{A}}^{\ensuremath{\alpha}}⟩\ensuremath{\bigotimes}|{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Phi}}}^{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}{⟩}_{\mathrm{BC}}$, where ${|{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Psi}}}^{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}⟩,|{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Phi}}}^{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}⟩}$ are the Bell basis states and $|{\mathrm{A}}^{\ensuremath{\alpha}}⟩$ is a spin superposition state of system
A. We calculate the von Neumann entropy variation before and after the scattering for the particle
C and show that spin measurements in
C contain numerical information about the total cross section of the process. We compare the initial states W and GHZ as well as study the role played by the parameter $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ in the evaluation of the entropy variations and the cross section encoded in the spectator particle.
We report on a systematic study on the entanglement between helicity degrees of freedom generated at tree level in quantum electrodynamics two-particle scattering processes. We determine the necessary and sufficient dynamical conditions for outgoing particles to be entangled with one another, and expose the hitherto unknown generation of maximal or nearly maximal entanglement through Bhabha and Compton scattering. Our work is an early step in revisiting quantum field theory and high-energy physics in the light of quantum information theory.
We investigate spin-outcome correlations and memory-assisted entropic uncertainty in tree-level Bhabha scattering, where an incident electron
A scatters with a positron
B initially entangled with a spectator electron
C. For the fixed-angle post-selected final state, we compare the total memory-assisted uncertainty
UA for three alternative Pauli measurements on
A with the entanglement entropy
S(ρA) across the
A∣BC partition. We resolve
UA into the separate uncertainties
UB and
UC and evaluate the corresponding outcome-memory mutual-information sums
GB and
GC. This separates changes in the randomness of the outcomes on
A from changes in their correlations with each memory. In the parameter regions studied, enhanced
A∣BC entanglement is accompanied by lower
UA, most prominently near high-energy backscattering. An analytic treatment of this limit shows that
B factorizes from
AC:
GB vanishes, whereas
GC increases with the initial
B-
C entanglement. An entropic complete complementarity analysis characterizes the accompanying loss of local helicity predictability in
ρA and changes in the coherence, predictability, and mixedness of the interacting pair
ρAB. These results show that initial
B-
C entanglement can lower the total memory-assisted uncertainty in high-energy backscattering by strengthening spin-outcome correlations with the spectator
C, thereby identifying the distinct roles of the interacting particle and the spectator as quantum memories.