Researchers from IIT Bhilai, led by Prof. Sudhanwa Patra, have published a significant study in the American Physical Society journal Physical Review D (2026) on quantum entanglement in neutrino physics. This work has been carried out by PhD student of IIT Bhilai, Rajrupa Banerjee, in collaboration with Prof. PK Panigrahi (Director, Center of Quantum Science and Technology, SOA University, Bhubaneswar) and Prof. Hiranmaya Mishra (Visiting Professor, NISER & Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar) exploring novel measures of quantum entanglement, including the concept of ‘Concurrence Fill.’ It may be noted that Neutrinos are tiny subatomic particles that constantly change their identity like a magical chameleon traveling through space.

 

In the world of quantum physics, this chameleon has three different “costumes” or flavors: Electron, Muon and Tau. When a neutrino is born (say, in a particle accelerator), it wears just one costume. But as it travels, it doesn’t just stay in one outfit. It constantly shapeshifts, blending into a superposition of all three at once-a phenomenon known as neutrino oscillation. Research group of Prof. Patra are investigated in this work ask a fascinating question: Is this shapeshifting just a simple change of clothes, or is it something deeper? The authors argue that it’s the latter.

 

They propose that a single neutrino is actually a single particle entangled with itself across three different “modes” (the three flavors). The study demonstrates that these new entanglement measures can be tested in major international neutrino experiments such as: DUNE (USA) and T2K (Japan). These experiments study neutrinos over long distances and are crucial for understanding CP violation, a phenomenon that may explain why the universe is dominated by matter over antimatter. The research shows that entanglement patterns are sensitive to this CP-violating phase, offering a novel way to probe fundamental physics. Prof. Patra’s group at IIT Bhilai is actively working in various aspects of neutrino physics including CP and T violation, Decay and deocoherence effects, and multi-messenger Astrophysics. The group is recognised for connecting high-energy physics with quantum information theory, an emerging interdisciplinary frontier.