An international team of scientists, including researchers from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, has applied quantum information techniques to study the internal structure of the proton. They discovered that quantum entanglement inside the proton reaches its maximum level, with virtual gluons and quarks being the primary sources of this phenomenon. This new approach has, for the first time, successfully explained all available experimental data obtained from deep inelastic scattering of electrons and protons.
In their experiments, scientists used a method in which an electron emits a high-energy photon that interacts with quarks and gluons inside the proton. The analysis of secondary particles revealed that the proton’s constituents exist in a state of maximal entanglement, meaning they are inseparably linked. The introduction of the concept of entanglement entropy allowed for a quantitative measurement of this phenomenon: the less information available about the proton’s internal structure, the higher its entropy.
This new method significantly improves the interpretation of accelerator experiment data, such as those from HERA at DESY and the future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) in the U.S. It paves the way for a deeper understanding of strong interactions that bind quarks and gluons within the proton, as well as the processes that influence its properties inside the atomic nucleus.
Going forward, researchers plan to further explore the role of quantum entanglement in nuclear physics, which could lead to new discoveries in fundamental interactions and the structure of matter. The study involved scientists from leading global institutions, including Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stony Brook University.
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