Quantum Entanglement for Systems of Identical Bosons. I General Theory

TL;DR

This paper develops a rigorous theoretical framework for understanding and detecting entanglement in systems of identical massive bosons, such as Bose-Einstein condensates, emphasizing the role of symmetrisation and super-selection rules.

Contribution

It provides a detailed justification of entanglement criteria for identical bosons and introduces new inequalities for experimental detection of entanglement in such systems.

Findings

Entanglement criteria tailored for massive bosons are established.

New inequalities for detecting entanglement are derived.

Analysis of recent experiments confirms the theoretical approach.

Abstract

These two accompanying papers treat two mode entanglement for systems of identical massive bosons and the relationship to spin squeezing and other quantum correlation effects. Entanglement is a key quantum feature of composite systems where the probabilities for joint measurements on the composite sub-systems are no longer determined from measurement probabilities on the separate sub-systems. We focus on the meaning of entanglement, the quantum paradoxes associated with entangled states, and important tests that allow an experimentalist to determine whether a quantum state - in particular, one for massive bosons is entangled. Our tests for entanglement fully utilise the symmetrisation principle and super-selection rules for bosonic massive particles. These papers provides detailed arguments necessary for the conclusions of a recent paper which presented results for rigorously demonstrating the entanglement of a two-mode Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). In the first paper (I), we discuss the meaning of entanglement for systems of identical particles. For such systems, the relevant quantum density operators must satisfy the symmetrisation principle and global and local super-selection rules prohibiting states in which there are coherences between differing particle numbers. We fully justify these requirements. In the second quantisation approach, both the system and sub-systems are modes (or sets of modes) rather than particles, particles being associated with different mode occupancies. In the accompanying review paper (II), we consider spin squeezing and other tests for entanglement for two-mode bosonic systems. Starting from paper (I) we determine which tests are useful for detecting entanglement in massive bosonic (BEC), as opposed to photonic, systems. Several new inequalities are derived, and recent key experiments are analysed.