Entanglement of indistinguishable particles in condensed-matter physics (12 pages)

G. C. Ghirardi, Luca Marinatto

Mark R. Dowling, Andrew C. Doherty, Howard M. Wiseman

The concept of entanglement in systems where the particles are indistinguishable has been the subject of much recent interest and controversy. In this paper we study the notion of entanglement of particles introduced by Wiseman and Vaccaro [Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 097902 (2003)] in several specific physical systems, including some that occur in condensed-matter physics. The entanglement of particles is relevant when the identical particles are itinerant and so not distinguished by their position as in spin models. We show that entanglement of particles can behave differently than other approaches that have been used previously, such as entanglement of modes (occupation-number entanglement) and the entanglement in the two-spin reduced density matrix. We argue that the entanglement of particles is what could actually be measured in most experimental scenarios and thus its physical significance is clear. This suggests that entanglement of particles may be useful in connecting theoretical and experimental studies of entanglement in condensed-matter systems.

Paolo Zanardi A

The Fock space of a system of indistinguishable particles is isomorphic (in a nonunique way) to the state space of a composite, i.e., many modes, quantum system. One can then discuss quantum entanglement for fermionic as well as bosonic systems. We exemplify the use of this notion---central in quantum information---by studying some, e.g., Hubbard, lattice fermionic models relevant to condensed matter physics.

Nicolas Laflorencie

S. J. van Enk

F. Benatti, Roberto Floreanini B, Fabio Franchini +1 more