Quantifying Electron Entanglement Faithfully

Entanglement is one of the most fascinating concepts of modern physics. In striking contrast to its abstract, mathematical foundation, its practical side is, however, remarkably underdeveloped. Even for systems of just two orbitals or sites no faithful entanglement measure is known yet. By exploiting the spin symmetries of realistic many-electron systems, we succeed in deriving a closed formula for the relative entropy of entanglement between electron orbitals. Its broad applicability in the quantum sciences is demonstrated: (i) in light of the second quantum revolution, it quantifies the true physical entanglement by incorporating the crucial fermionic superselection rule (ii) an analytic description of the long-distance entanglement in free electron chains is found, refining Kohn's locality principle (iii) the bond-order wave phase in the extended Hubbard model can be confirmed, and (iv) the quantum complexity of common molecular bonding structures could be marginalized through orbital transformations, thus rationalizing zero-seniority wave function ansatzes.