Witnessing entanglement in quantum magnets using neutron scattering

Abstract

Measuring quantum entanglement in solid state systems has been a long-standing challenge. Here, the authors use three entanglement witnesses borrowed from quantum information theory to directly detect quantum entanglement in the 1D Heisenberg spin chain system KCuF${}_{3}$ using inelastic neutron scattering data. The results are validated using density matrix renormalization group calculations and show that model-independent measures of quantum spin entanglement are experimentally possible, as well as reveal which witnesses are more experimentally robust.