Toward experimental determination of spin entanglement of nucleon pairs

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to experimentally determine spin entanglement in two-nucleon pure states using quantum state tomography, measuring three spin polarizations, and analyzes errors from imperfect preparation.

Contribution

It introduces a direct nuclear physics approach to measure spin entanglement via polarization experiments, expanding the experimental toolkit for nuclear entanglement studies.

Findings

Spin entanglement can be quantified by measuring three spin polarizations.

The method is robust against errors from imperfect nucleon pair preparation.

Provides a practical approach for nuclear physics experiments involving polarized particles.

Abstract

Nuclear entanglement is a flagship in the interdisciplinary direction of nuclear physics and quantum information science. Spin entanglement, a special kind of nuclear entanglement, is ubiquitous in nuclear structures and dynamics. Based on the idea of quantum state tomography, the problem of experimental determination of spin entanglement of two-nucleon pure states is studied directly within the scope of nuclear physics. It is shown that the amount of spin entanglement can be obtained by measuring three spin polarizations of one nucleon in polarization experiments. The errors from imperfect preparation of nucleon pairs are also analyzed. This work not only complements the existing literature of nuclear entanglement but also provides new opportunities for nuclear physics with polarized particles.