Quantum entanglement between particles inside a proton

New research reveals, through experiments, the existence of generalized quantum entanglement between all the particles inside a proton (quarks and gluons). To the best of the authors of the new study, quantum entanglement within a proton had never before been investigated using data from high-energy particle collisions.

The study is the work of a team including, among others, Martin Hentschinski, from the University of the Americas in Puebla, Mexico, and Zhoudunming (Kong) Tu, from the Brookhaven National Laboratory, in the United States.

The authors of the study have had a new method to use data from high-energy particle collisions to observe the interior of protons. Their method uses quantum information science to determine how the trajectories of particles originating in electron-proton collisions are influenced by quantum entanglement within the proton.

The results reveal that both quarks and gluons, the fundamental components that make up the structure of a proton, are subject to quantum entanglement within protons.

Quantum entanglement, described colloquially by Albert Einstein as “spooky action at a distance,” means that particles can “know” each other’s state even when they are separated by a great distance.

For many decades, physicists have focused on determining the properties of the proton’s constituent particles separately, including how quarks and gluons are distributed within the proton.

The latest analyzes of data collected in proton-electron collisions reveal strong evidence of quantum entanglement between the components of the proton’s sea of ​​particles: quarks (represented in the illustration as spheres) and gluons (represented as sinuous lines). (Image: Valerie Lentz/Brookhaven National Laboratory)

Now, with evidence that quarks and gluons are quantum entangled within the proton, the system is revealed to be much more complex and dynamic.

The study is titled “QCD evolution of entanglement entropy.” And it has been published in the academic journal Reports on Progress in Physics. (Fountain: NCYT by Amazings)