Entanglement entropy and Schmidt number as measures of delocalization of α clusters in one-dimensional nuclear systems

We calculate the von Neumann entanglement entropy and the Schmidt number of one-dimensional (1D) cluster states and show that these are useful measures to estimate entanglement caused by delocalization of clusters. We analyze system size dependence of these entanglement measures in the linear-chain n alpha states given by Tohsaki-Horiuchi-Schuck-Ropke wave functions for 1D cluster gas states. We show that the Schmidt number is an almost equivalent measure to the von Neumann entanglement entropy when the delocalization of clusters occurs in the entire system but it shows different behaviors in a partially delocalized state containing localized clusters and delocalized ones. Thus the Renyi-2 entanglement entropy, which relates to the Schmidt number, is found to be almost equivalent to the von Neumann entanglement entropy for the full delocalized cluster system but it is less sensitive to the partially delocalized cluster system than the von Neumann entanglement entropy. We also propose a new entanglement measure which is a generalized form of the Schmidt number. The sensitivity of these measures of entanglement to the delocalization of clusters in low-density regions is discussed.