Physicists at Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stony Brook University have demonstrated that particles produced in jets during proton-proton collisions retain information about their origins. This establishes a direct link between entanglement entropy at the earliest stage of jet formation and the emerging particle distribution.
This finding, published as an Editors’ Suggestion in Physical Review Letters, was derived from data collected by the ATLAS experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The study reveals that when quarks or gluons are knocked free during collisions, they fragment into hadrons such as pions, kaons, and protons, with the entropy of these particles matching the entanglement entropy of the fragmentation process. This discovery provides new insights into how quantum entanglement influences particle creation and sets the stage for further exploration at upcoming facilities like the Electron-Ion Collider.
Maximal Entanglement in Jet Formation
Jets are collimated sprays of particles resulting from high-energy proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). These jets form when quarks or gluons, knocked free during the collision, fragment into hadrons such as pions, kaons, and protons. This fragmentation process is a key aspect of quantum chromodynamics, the theory describing the strong interaction.
The study reveals that the entropy, or disorder, of the resulting hadron distribution correlates with the entanglement entropy at the earliest stage of jet formation. Entanglement entropy measures the quantum entanglement between particles in a system. In this context, maximal entanglement implies a high degree of disorder among the jet’s constituent hadrons.
The findings demonstrate that observed particle distributions align with predictions based on maximal entanglement during fragmentation. This connection offers new insights into how quantum effects influence hadron and jet formation.
Future research at the upcoming Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) will further explore these quantum phenomena by comparing jets from electron-proton and electron-nucleus collisions. Such studies aim to elucidate how entanglement affects hadron formation across different collision scenarios, potentially revealing new aspects of nuclear physics and quantum mechanics.
Funding and Collaboration Behind the Study
The research was conducted through a collaborative effort involving institutions worldwide, supported by funding from national and international agencies. The study highlights the importance of global cooperation in advancing our understanding of quantum chromodynamics and its implications for particle physics.
The findings provide new insights into how quantum effects influence hadron formation, underscoring the need to consider entanglement when modeling and predicting particle collision outcomes. These results contribute significantly to ongoing efforts to refine theoretical models and experimental techniques in high-energy physics.
Future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) experiments will build on these findings by exploring quantum phenomena in diverse collision environments. Such investigations aim to deepen our understanding of nuclear physics and the fundamental nature of quantum systems, paving the way for new discoveries in particle physics.
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