Published September 25, 2024 | Version v1
Journal article

Spin-energy entanglement of a time-focused neutron

  • 1. Neutron Technologies Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830, USA
  • 2. Physik-Department, Technische Universität München, Garching D-85748, Germany
  • 3. Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ), Technische Universität München, Garching D-85748, Germany
  • 4. Department of Physics, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA
  • 5. Center for Exploration of Energy and Matter, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47408, USA
  • 6. Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
  • 7. Jülich Centre for Neutron Science JCNS, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH Outstation at MLZ FRM-II, Garching D-85747, Germany

Description

Intraparticle entanglement of individual particles such as neutrons could enable another class of scattering probes that are sensitive to entanglement in quantum systems and materials. In this work, we present experimental results demonstrating quantum contextuality as a result of entanglement between the spin and energy modes (i.e., degrees of freedom) of single neutrons in a beam using a pair of resonant radio-frequency neutron spin flippers in the modulated intensity with zero effort configuration. We verified the mode entanglement by measuring a Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt contextuality witness S defined in the spin and energy subsystems, observing a clear breach of the classical bound of |S|2, obtaining S=2.40±0.02. These entangled beams could enable alternative approaches for directly probing dynamics and entanglement in quantum materials whose low-energy excitation scales match those of the incident entangled neutron.

Additional details

Identifiers

DOI
10.1103/PhysRevApplied.22.L031005;
arXiv
arXiv:2404.07967;
Crossref Funder ID
10.13039/501100002347; 10.13039/501100001659; 10.13039/501100000781; 10.13039/100000015; 10.13039/100006132; 10.13039/100006210; 10.13039/100006151; 10.13039/501100002347; 10.13039/501100001659; 10.13039/501100000781; 10.13039/100000015; 10.13039/100006132; 10.13039/100006210; 10.13039/100006151;

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review Applied
Journal Volume
22
Journal Issue
3
Journal Page Range
6 pgs.
ISSN
2331-7019