Roadmap Towards Quantum Entanglement Positron Emission Tomography (QE-PET)

Area of Science:

• Quantum physics
• Medical imaging
• Biophysics

Background:

• Annihilation photons possess quantum entanglement in polarization, a property not utilized in current clinical Positron Emission Tomography (PET).
• Emerging research investigates leveraging quantum entanglement for advanced medical diagnostics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To roadmap the current research status of quantum entanglement applications in medical diagnosis.
• To outline the physics and detector development for future Quantum Entanglement PET (QE-PET) scanners.
• To explore QE-PET's potential for enhanced imaging, diagnostic biomarkers, and pH mapping.

Main Methods:

• Investigating quantum entanglement and decoherence of annihilation photons.
• Developing detector systems capable of measuring Compton scattering of entangled photons.
• Utilizing entanglement properties for improved PET imaging and novel diagnostic applications.

Main Results:

• Experimental results on quantum entanglement and decoherence are presented.
• Theoretical understanding of these quantum phenomena is discussed.
• Methods for suppressing random coincidences and enabling new imaging modalities are described.

Conclusions:

• QE-PET scanners aim to utilize photon entanglement for enhanced PET imaging.
• Quantum entanglement may serve as a biomarker for tissue pathology and oxygenation.
• Potential for entanglement-based pH imaging is explored, with clinical translation remaining an open research question.