Abstract
The development of qualitatively new measurement capabilities is often a prerequisite for critical scientific and technological advances. Here we introduce an unconventional quantum probe, an entangled neutron beam, where individual neutrons can be entangled in spin, trajectory and energy. The spatial separation of trajectories from nanometers to microns and energy differences from peV to neV will enable investigations of microscopic magnetic correlations in systems with strongly entangled phases, such as those believed to emerge in unconventional superconductors. We develop an interferometer to prove entanglement of these distinguishable properties of the neutron beam by observing clear violations of both Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt and Mermin contextuality inequalities in the same experimental setup. Our work opens a pathway to a future of entangled neutron scattering in matter.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 930 |
| Journal | Nature Communications |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 1 2020 |
Funding
We thank Prof. Y. Hasegawa for useful discussions. Experiments at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source were supported by a beamtime allocation RB1820192 from the Science and Technology Facilities Council. W.M.S. acknowledges NSF PHY-1614545 and the IU Center for Spacetime Symmetries. A number of the authors acknowledge support from the US Department of Commerce through cooperative agreement number 70NANB15H259. F.L. acknowledges the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The IU Quantum Science and Engineering Center is supported by the Office of the IU Bloomington Vice Provost for Research through its Emerging Areas of Research program. The work described in this paper arose from the development of magnetic Wollaston prisms and RF flippers funded by the US Department of Energy through its STTR program (grant numbers DE-SC0009584 and DE-SC0017127).