Time-resolved entanglement of bound and dissociative atoms and molecules
Journal
Chemical Physics
Journal Volume
306
Journal Issue
1-3
Pages
219-227
Date Issued
2004
Author(s)
Abstract
In this paper, we theoretically examine the time-independent and -dependent degrees of entanglement fidelities of bi-partite systems consisting of various bound two particles and of those of dissociative ones. The target maximally entangled state is defined as the non-interacting two particles: they are assumed to be infinitely far away from each other in the distant future. In this case, the potential energy functions which are non-local in nature can be regarded as entangling source. We investigate, how much we can make the target maximally entangled state from the initial (probably somewhat entangled) state without using any non-local external unitary transformation. Specifically, we investigate the cases where the two particles interact by attractive and repulsive Coulomb, harmonic, and Morse potentials which are ubiquitous in physics and chemistry. All of these omnipresent potentials exert non-local unitary transformations of multi-partite systems, which gives rise to the time-dependent entanglement according to the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. In the time-independent case, the bound state with identical mass or different mass shows a definite time-independent entanglement fidelity for each eigenstate. In the time-dependent case, time-dependence manifests itself both in the bound and the dissociative systems. In the former case, the entanglement shows regular oscillatory patterns in harmony with the wave packet revival in the harmonic potential and a prominent enhancement in the anharmonic potential while in the latter case the entanglement diminishes very quickly. From these results, we point out that the time-evolution of the entanglement is much more sensitive to the interaction (potential) of two particles and to the initial wavepacket than that of the autocorrelation function. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
SDGs
Type
journal article