Attosecond Entanglement Spectroscopy: Watching Quantum Correlations Form in Chemical Reactions

Building on Ruberti et al.'s theoretical proposal for Bell tests in attosecond photoionization (Source 1, "Deviations"), we'll develop experimental techniques to perform these tests and extend them to molecular systems. While their work focused on atoms, we'll design attosecond pump-probe experiments that can track entanglement formation in real-time during chemical reactions like bond breaking. This is novel because current attosecond physics studies electron dynamics but ignores quantum correlations between subsystems. By implementing Bell tests during photoionization of molecules (e.g., water or organic compounds), we can map how entanglement emerges and evolves during chemical changes. This diverges from existing approaches by treating entanglement as a dynamical observable rather than a static property. The impact could be transformative for quantum chemistry, revealing how entanglement drives reaction pathways and enabling control of chemical processes through quantum correlations.

References:

1. Bell Test of Quantum Entanglement in Attosecond Photoionization. M. Ruberti, V. Averbukh, Florian Mintert (2023). Physical Review X.