Discovery of entanglement generation by elastic collision to realise the original Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen thought experiment

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel method to generate entanglement through elastic collisions with specific initial states, enabling a new experimental test of the original EPR thought experiment.

Contribution

It introduces a simple elastic collision setup with unbalanced mass ratios and squeezed states to create entanglement as envisioned by EPR, which has not been experimentally realized before.

Findings

Entanglement can be generated via elastic collisions with specific initial conditions.

Infinite squeezing allows perfect inference of one particle's property from the other.

A practical method to test the original EPR idea is outlined.

Abstract

The amazing quantum effect of `entanglement' was discovered in the 1935 thought experiment by Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen (`EPR'). The ensuing research opened up fundamental questions and led to experiments that proved that quantum theory cannot be completed by local hidden variables. Remarkably, EPR did not discuss how to create the entanglement in their thought experiment. Here I add this part. What is required in the original EPR thought experiment is a simple elastic particle collision, an unbalanced mass ratio of e.g. 1:3 and initial states that are position and momentum squeezed, respectively. In the limiting case of infinite squeeze factors, the measurement of the position or momentum of one particle allows an absolutely precise conclusion to be drawn about the value of the same quantity of the other particle. The EPR idea has never been tested in this way. I outline a way to do this.