arXiv:quant-ph/0204058 · Journal of Physics A Mathematical and General
Quantum entanglement in second-quantized condensed matter systems
Yu Shi
Abstract
The entanglement between occupation numbers of different single particle basis states depends on coupling between different single particle basis states in the second-quantized Hamiltonian. Thus, in principle, interaction is not necessary for occupation-number entanglement to appear. However, in order to characterize quantum correlation caused by interaction , we use the eigenstates of the single-particle Hamiltonian as the single particle basis upon which the occupation-number entanglement is defined. Using this so-called proper single particle basis, if there is no interaction, the many-particle second-quantized Hamiltonian is diagonalized and thus cannot generate entanglement, while its eigenstates can always be chosen to be non-entangled. If there is interaction, entanglement in the proper single particle basis arises in energy eigenstates and can be dynamically generated. Using the proper single particle basis, we discuss occupation-number entanglement in important eigenstates, especially ground states, of systems of many identical particles, in exploring insights the notion of entanglement sheds on many-particle physics. The discussions on Fermi systems start with Fermi gas, the Hartree–Fock approximation and the electron–hole entanglement in excitations. In the ground state of a Fermi liquid, in terms of the Landau quasiparticles, entanglement becomes negligible. The entanglement in a quantum Hall state is quantified as − f ln f − (1 − f )ln(1 − f ), where f is the proper fractional part of the filling factor. For BCS superconductivity, the entanglement is a function of the relative momentum wavefunction of the Cooper pair g k , and is thus directly related to the superconducting energy gap, and vanishes if and only if superconductivity vanishes. For a spinless Bose system, entanglement does not appear in the Hartree–Gross–Pitaevskii approximation, but becomes important in the Bogoliubov theory, as a characterization of two-particle correlation caused by the weak interaction. In these examples, the interaction-induced entanglement as calculated is directly related to the macroscopic physical properties.