Visualizing entanglement in atoms and molecules

Abstract

In this work we show how constructing Wigner functions of heterogeneous quantum systems leads to new capability in the visualization of quantum states of atoms and molecules. This method allows us to display quantum correlations (entanglement) between spin and spatial degrees of freedom (spin-orbit coupling) and between spin degrees of freedom, as well as more complex combinations of spin and spatial entanglement for the first time. This is important as there is growing recognition that such properties affect the physical characteristics, and chemistry, of atoms and molecules. Our visualizations are sufficiently accessible that, with some preparation, those with a non-technical background can gain an appreciation of subtle quantum properties of atomic and other systems. By providing new insights and modelling capability, our phase-space representation will be of great utility in understanding aspects of atomic physics and chemistry not available with current techniques.

10 pages, 6 figures, draft - improved and clarified discussion

References in corpus (3)

• Visualizing operators of coupled spin systems
• Wigner tomography of multispin quantum states
• Negativity volume of the generalized Wigner function as an entanglement witness for hybrid bipartite states

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Overview of the phase space formulation of quantum mechanics with application to quantum technologies
• New Phase Space Formulations and Quantum Dynamics Approaches
• Generalized Phase-Space Techniques to Explore Quantum Phase Transitions in Critical Quantum Spin Systems
• Overcoming the numerical sign problem in the Wigner dynamics via adaptive particle annihilation