Hints of entanglement suppression in hyperon-nucleon scattering
Qiaofeng Liu, Ian Low
Abstract
Hyperon (Y=Σ,Λ)-nucleon (N=n,p) interactions are crucial for understanding the existence of neutron stars heavier than two solar masses. Amid renewed experimental efforts, we study YN scatterings from the perspective of quantum information, focusing on whether spin entanglement is suppressed in the s-wave channel, which is observed in np scattering and leads to enhanced global symmetries. Using global fits of phase shifts from experimental data, we find hints of entanglement suppression among the eight flavor channels in the strangeness S=−1 sector, similar to the np case. One exception is the Σ+p channel, where conflicting global fits lead to inconclusive outcome. We then propose “quantum” observables in Σ+p scattering to help resolve the differing global fits.