Comparison of electron and neutron Compton scattering from entangled protons in a solid polymer

Abstract

We present, for the first time, a direct comparison between electron (ECS) and neutron (NCS) Compton scattering results from protons of a solid polymer. The momentum distributions of hydrogen obtained from ECS and NCS are in excellent agreement. In both experiments, a strong ‘‘anomalous’’ shortfall in the scattering intensity of protons {first detected in liquid water with NCS [C. A. Chatzidimitriou-Dreismann et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 2839 (1997)]} is found ranging from about 20% up to 50%, depending on the momentum transfer applied. The characteristic times of electron- and neutron-proton collisions lie in the subfemtosecond range. The presented ECS and NCS results provide further direct evidence for this striking effect, which has been ascribed to attosecond quantum entanglement of the protons.