Quantum Entanglement of Protons Studied by Electron Scattering at High Momentum Transfer

On extremely short time scales protons (hydrogen) in matter are not expected to act as classical particles, but to interfere (or become entangled) with each other. This phenomenon occurs at the edge of experimentally realizable time scales, but it has been recently demonstrated that in the condensed phase it influences the probability for large-angle elastic scattering of both neutrons and electrons. A gas-phase electron spectrometer is proposed to test these effects for hydrogen-containing molecules. These entanglement effects have the potential to dramatically change the way we think about the chemical bond, interactions of (bio-)molecules, and properties of nanosystems (like qubits).