Entanglement isn't just for spin

Abstract

Quantum entanglement occurs not just in discrete systems such as spins, but also in the spatial wave functions of systems with more than one degree of freedom. It is easy to introduce students to entangled wave functions at an early stage, in any course that discusses wave functions. Doing so not only prepares students to learn about Bell's theorem and quantum information science, but can also provide a deeper understanding of the principles of quantum mechanics and help fight against some common misconceptions. Here I introduce several pictorial examples of entangled wave functions that depend on just two spatial variables. I also show how such wave functions can arise dynamically, and describe how to quantify their entanglement.

11 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to the American Journal of Physics

References in corpus (2)

• Surveying students' understanding of quantum mechanics in one spatial dimension
• The variational-relaxation algorithm for finding quantum bound states

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Proton-neutron entanglement in the nuclear shell model
• A time-symmetric formulation of quantum entanglement
• Entanglement, Complexity, and Causal Asymmetry in Quantum Theories
• Constrained dynamics of maximally entangled bipartite system
• Fresh look at the effects of gravitational tidal forces on a freely-falling quantum particle
• Effects of spatial nonlocality versus nonlocal causality for bound electrons in external fields
• Measurement-induced entanglement entropy of gravitational wave detections