Packet narrowing and quantum entanglement in photoionization and photodissociation

Abstract

The narrowing of electron and ion wave packets in the process of photoionization is investigated, with the electron-ion recoil fully taken into account. Packet localization of this type is directly related to entanglement in the joint quantum state of electron and ion, and to Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen localization. Experimental observation of such packet-narrowing effects is suggested via coincidence registration by two detectors, with a fixed position of one and varying position of the other. A similar effect, typically with an enhanced degree of entanglement, is shown to occur in the case of photodissociation of molecules.