Entangled electron-photon pair production by channel-exchange in high-energy Compton scattering

TL;DR

This paper theoretically demonstrates that high-energy Compton scattering can produce strongly entangled electron-photon pairs with specific directional preferences, expanding potential experimental applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel channel-exchange mechanism showing how unpolarized electrons and photons can generate highly entangled pairs in high-energy scattering.

Findings

Strong electron-photon entanglement observed at specific scattering directions.

Maximal entanglement occurs on the plane perpendicular to the electron-detector axis.

Entanglement is not limited by the Kapitza-Dirac restriction.

Abstract

The present work theoretically investigates the probability of generation of entangled electron-photon pair in high-energy Compton scattering of unpolarized electrons and photons due to scattering-channel-exchange mechanism. The study suggests that the scattering of unpolarized electrons and photons with nearly equal energy of the order of MeV at cross-channel can create entangled pair of up-spin electron and RCP photon or down-spin electron and LCP photon. The entanglement is quite strong exhibiting jump-concurrence for particular directions of scattering however not limited by the Kapitza-Dirac restriction. Such strong electron-photon entanglement is observed to be highly selective along the directions of scattering on the surface of two opposite cones at 45 degree around the electron-detector axis and on the plane perpendicular to it, the latter one exhibiting maximal entanglement. The work predicts that spin-polarization entangled electron-photon pairs are highly possible to be found in practical experiments of high-energy Compton scattering with specific directional selectivity.