De-excitation effects on entanglement in multi-nucleon transfer reactions

TL;DR

This paper introduces a hybrid theoretical approach combining TDCDFT and GEMINI++ to study how nuclear de-excitation affects entanglement and reaction outcomes in multi-nucleon transfer reactions, with implications for understanding quantum correlations.

Contribution

The study develops a novel hybrid TDCDFT+GEMINI approach to accurately model de-excitation effects on entanglement in nuclear reactions, bridging theory and experiment.

Findings

De-excitation is crucial for matching theoretical cross sections with experimental data.

Reaction channels open abruptly at a specific energy threshold, increasing entropy.

De-excitation significantly reduces initial quantum entanglement between fragments.

Abstract

This study quantifies the impact of nuclear de-excitation on correlations in multi-nucleon transfer (MNT) reactions. To bridge the gap between initial collision dynamics and final experimental observables, we introduce a hybrid TDCDFT+GEMINI approach, integrating time-dependent covariant density functional theory (TDCDFT) with the statistical de-excitation model GEMINI++. Applied to the $^{40}$Ca + $^{208}$Pb reaction, our method demonstrates that the de-excitation is essential for reconciling theoretical cross sections with experimental data. Analysis of the cross-section Shannon entropy reveals that new reaction channels open abruptly at a specific energy threshold. By employing mutual information, we show that the de-excitation process significantly degrades the initial quantum entanglement between the projectile-like and the target-like fragments, revealing a key mechanism through which fundamental quantum correlations are lost.