Quantum entanglement and Bell nonlocality in top-quark pair production at a photon linear collider

Abstract

A photon linear collider, the two-photon collision mode of an $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ linear collider, uses high-energy laser photons backscattered off the incoming electrons and positrons. The colliding-photon polarization is fully controllable through the polarizations of the initial electron and positron beams and laser photons. We investigate the impact of colliding-photon polarization on the observability of quantum entanglement in top-quark pair production at a photon linear collider. Constructing the spin density matrix of the $t\bar{t}$ two-qubit system from the helicity amplitudes, we demonstrate that a photon linear collider is an ideal machine to probe quantum entanglement and Bell nonlocality across the broad phase space of the process.

1+33 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables; Expected significances estimated, to appear in JHEP