Spin–spin correlations and entanglement in elastic electron scattering from hydrogen atoms

Abstract

In two recent papers, Blum and Lohmann (2016 Phys. Rev. Lett. 116 033201) and Lohmann et al (2016 Phys. Rev. A 94 032331), the possibility of continuously varying the degree of entanglement between an elastically scattered electron and the valence electron of quasi-one electron targets was discussed. Here we present results for elastic electron scattering from atomic hydrogen in the energy regime of 1−10 eV and the full range of scattering angles . We confirm previous calculations at very low energies, which predicted that the hydrogen target is not a promising candidate for Bell correlations through electron collisions. This finding remains unchanged in the near-resonance regime of incident electron energies just below 10 eV. In addition to the spin-correlation parameter P, we present the angle-integrated total cross section, as well as the angle-differential cross section at a few representative collision energies.