Entanglement of protons in organic molecules: An attosecond neutron scattering study of C-H bond breaking

Interactions between adjacent particles of condensed phases can lead to qua ntum correlation phenomena. like quantum interference, entanglement, deloca lization, and "Schrodinger's cat" states. Such correlations are theoretical ly expected to be extremely short-lived because of environmental disturbanc es. Here, we present experimental evidence for quantum entanglement between well localized protons of C-H bonds of 2-isobutoxyethanol dissolved in D2O . The applied experimental method is neutron Compton scattering (NCS), whic h has a characteristic time window in the subfemtosecond time range. Our NC S results reveal that, in the subfemtosecond time scale, the measured cross -section density, and thus, in simple terms, the effectively present concen tration, of the H atoms is "anomalously" reduced by similar to 20%. Affecti ng the microdynamics of protons of covalent C-H bonds, this novel effect ma y have a broad range of chemical and biological applications.