Complementarity and entanglement in a simple model of inelastic scattering

Abstract

A simple model coupling a one-dimensional beam particle to a one-dimensional harmonic oscillator is used to explore complementarity and entanglement. This model, well-known in the inelastic scattering literature, is presented under three different conceptual approaches, with both analytical and numerical techniques discussed for each. In a purely classical approach, the final amplitude of the oscillator can be found directly from the initial conditions. In a partially quantum approach, with a classical beam and a quantum oscillator, the final magnitude of the quantum-mechanical amplitude for the oscillator's first excited state is directly proportional to the oscillator's classical amplitude of vibration. Nearly the same first-order transition probabilities emerge in the partially and fully quantum approaches, but conceptual differences emerge. The two-particle scattering wavefunction clarifies these differences and allows the consequences of quantum entanglement to be explored.