Spin-energy entanglement of a time-focused neutron

J.C. Leiner; S.J. Kuhn; S. McKay; J.K. Jochum; F. Li; A.A.M. Irfan; F. Funama; D. Mettus; L. Beddrich; C. Franz; J. Shen; S.R. Parnell; R.M. Dalgliesh; M. Loyd; N. Geerits; G. Ortiz; C. Pfleiderer; R. Pynn

doi:10.1103/PhysRevApplied.22.L031005

Letter

Spin-energy entanglement of a time-focused neutron

J.C. Leiner ^1,2,3,*,†, S.J. Kuhn ^1,†, S. McKay ^4,5,†, J.K. Jochum ³, F. Li ¹, A.A.M. Irfan ^4,6, F. Funama ¹, D. Mettus ^2,3, L. Beddrich ³ et al.

C. Franz ⁷, J. Shen⁸, S.R. Parnell⁹, R.M. Dalgliesh¹⁰, M. Loyd ¹, N. Geerits ¹¹, G. Ortiz ^4,12,13, C. Pfleiderer ^2,3,14,15, and R. Pynn ^4,5,12,16

¹Neutron Technologies Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830, USA
²Physik-Department, Technische Universität München, Garching D-85748, Germany
³Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ), Technische Universität München, Garching D-85748, Germany
⁴Department of Physics, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA
⁵Center for Exploration of Energy and Matter, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47408, USA
⁶Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
⁷Jülich Centre for Neutron Science JCNS, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH Outstation at MLZ FRM-II, Garching D-85747, Germany
⁸Laboratory for Neutron Scattering and Imaging, Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen 5232, Switzerland
⁹Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 15, Delft 2629 JB, Netherlands
¹⁰ISIS, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Oxfordshire OX11 0QX, United Kingdom
¹¹Atominstitut, TU Wien, Stadionallee 2, Vienna 1020, Austria
¹²Quantum Science and Engineering Center, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47408, USA
¹³Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, USA
¹⁴Center for Quantum Engineering (ZQE), Technische Universität München, Garching D-85748, Germany
¹⁵Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (MCQST), Technische Universität München, Garching D-85748, Germany
¹⁶Neutron Sciences Directorate, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830, USA

^*Contact author: leinerjc@ornl.gov, jleiner@alumni.nd.edu
^†These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Phys. Rev. Applied 22, L031005 – Published 25 September, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.22.L031005

Abstract

Intraparticle entanglement of individual particles such as neutrons could enable another class of scattering probes that are sensitive to entanglement in quantum systems and materials. In this work, we present experimental results demonstrating quantum contextuality as a result of entanglement between the spin and energy modes (i.e., degrees of freedom) of single neutrons in a beam using a pair of resonant radio-frequency neutron spin flippers in the modulated intensity with zero effort configuration. We verified the mode entanglement by measuring a Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt contextuality witness $S$ defined in the spin and energy subsystems, observing a clear breach of the classical bound of $| S | \leq 2$ , obtaining $S = 2.40 \pm 0.02$ . These entangled beams could enable alternative approaches for directly probing dynamics and entanglement in quantum materials whose low-energy excitation scales match those of the incident entangled neutron.

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Spin-energy entanglement of a time-focused neutron

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Spin-energy entanglement of a time-focused neutron

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