Indications of energetic consequences of decoherence at short times for scattering from open quantum systems

摘要: Decoherence of quantum entangled particles is observed in most systems, and usually caused by system-environment interactions. Disentangling two subsystems A B a systemAB tantamount to erasure phase relations between B. It widely believed that this an innocuous process, which e.g. does not affect the energies Surprisingly, recent theoretical investigations different groups showed disentangling i.e. their decoherence, can cause increase energies. Applying result context neutronCompton scattering from H2 molecules, we provide for first time experimental evidence supports prediction. The results reveal neutron-proton collision leading cleavage H-H bond sub-femtosecond timescale accompanied larger energy transfer (by about 3%) than conventional theory predicts. proposed interpreted considering collisional system as open being subject decoherence owing interactions with “environment” (i.e., electrons plus second proton H2).