Generation of entangled states of qudits using twin photons

We report an experiment to generate entangled states of D-dimensional quantum systems, qudits, by using transverse spatial correlations of two parametric down-converted photons. Apertures with D slits in the arms of the twin photons define the qudit space. By manipulating the pump beam correctly, the twin photons will pass only by symmetrically opposite slits, generating entangled states between these different paths. Experimental results for qudits with D = 4 and 8 are shown. We demonstrate that the generated states are entangled states.     

Higher-Order Interference in Extensions of Quantum Theory

Quantum interference, manifest in the two slit experiment, lies at the heart of several quantum computational speed-ups and provides a striking example of a quantum phenomenon with no classical counterpart. An intriguing feature of quantum interference arises in a variant of the standard two slit experiment, in which there are three, rather than two, slits. The interference pattern in this set-up can be written in terms of the two and one slit patterns obtained by blocking one, or more, of the slits. This is in stark contrast with the standard two slit experiment, where the interference pattern cannot be written as a sum of the one slit patterns. This was first noted by Rafael Sorkin, who raised the question of why quantum theory only exhibits irreducible interference in the two slit experiment. One approach to this problem is to compare the predictions of quantum theory to those of operationally-defined ‘foil’ theories, in the hope of determining whether theories that do exhibit higher-order interference suffer from pathological—or at least undesirable—features. In this paper two proposed extensions of quantum theory are considered: the theory of Density Cubes proposed by Daki?, Paterek and Brukner, which has been shown to exhibit irreducible interference in the three slit set-up, and the Quartic Quantum Theory of ?yczkowski. The theory of Density Cubes will be shown to provide an advantage over quantum theory in a certain computational task and to posses a well-defined mechanism which leads to the emergence of quantum theory—analogous to the emergence of classical physics from quantum theory via decoherence. Despite this, the axioms used to define Density Cubes will be shown to be insufficient to uniquely characterise the theory. In comparison, Quartic Quantum Theory is a well-defined theory and we demonstrate that it exhibits irreducible interference to all orders. This feature of ?yczkowski’s theory is argued not to be a genuine phenomenon, but to arise from an ambiguity in the current definition of higher-order interference in operationally-defined theories. Thus, to begin to understand why quantum theory is limited to a certain kind of interference, a new definition of higher-order interference is needed that is applicable to, and makes good operational sense in, arbitrary operationally-defined theories.     

Wave-particle duality using the Compton effect

Thought experiments based on the double-slit interferometer had a crucial role to develop ideas concerning the wave-particle duality and the Bohr's complementarity principle. Ideally, a slit with a sufficiently low mass recoils due to the passage of the photon. This motion denounces the path taken by the light and suppresses any attempt to observe an interference pattern. In real life, however, available which-way information in such a setup is significantly impaired by the typical magnitudes of photons and slits, making the verification of the effect almost impossible. Here, we extend this discussion by applying similar ideas to the Mach-Zehnder interferometer. That is, we study the consequences of the beam-splitter recoil, during the passage of the photon, over the interference pattern produced by the device. Unlike the double-slit experiment, this recoil can now be encoded in the wavelength of the photon itself, which, in principle, is more easily accessed. Fortuitously, the model used to describe the interaction between the idealized beam-splitter and the photon clearly indicates that an interferometer based on Compton's effect could be build to study wave-particle duality. We follow this hint, finding realistic experimental parameters needed to observe the trade-off between wave and corpuscular behaviors in such a modified interferometer.     

Elektroneninterferenzen an mehreren künstlich hergestellten Feinspalten

A glass plate covered with an evaporated silver film of about 200 å thickness is irradiated by a line-shaped electron-probe in a vacuum of 10^?4 Torr. A hydrocarbon polymerisation film of very low electrical conductivity is formed at places subjected to high electron current density. An electrolytically deposited copper film leaves these places free from copper. When the copper film is stripped a grating with slits free of any material is obtained. 50 Μ long and 0·3 Μ wide slits with a grating constant of 1 Μ are obtained. The maximum number of slits is five. The electron diffraction pattern obtained using these slits in an arrangement analogous to Young's light optical interference experiment in the Fraunhofer plane and Fresnel region shows an effect corresponding to the well-known interference phenomena in light optics.     

Quantum theory and the nature of interference

It is shown that many of the difficulties associated with the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum theory are resolved by a new interpretation of interference derived from solutions to Maxwell's equations. An infinite wave model of the photon based on these solutions is described and used to explain the interference of single photons as well as the corpuscular behavior evident in the Compton and photoelectric effects. The wave-particle duality and the uncertainty relations are also discussed. According to the new interpretation of interference in a Young's double-slit experiment, photons which pass through the left-hand slit always arrive in the left-hand part of the screen and no photons pass into this area via the right-hand slit. This conclusion is compared with the viewpoint of the Copenhagen school and an experiment to distinguish between them is suggested.     

Three Slit Experiments and the Structure of Quantum Theory

In spite of the interference manifested in the double-slit experiment, quantum theory predicts that a measure of interference defined by Sorkin and involving various outcome probabilities from an experiment with three slits, is identically zero. We adapt Sorkin’s measure into a general operational probabilistic framework for physical theories, and then study its relationship to the structure of quantum theory. In particular, we characterize the class of probabilistic theories for which the interference measure is zero as ones in which it is possible to fully determine the state of a system via specific sets of ‘two-slit’ experiments.     

What dynamics can be expected for mixed states in two-slit experiments?

Weak-measurement-based experiments (Kocsis et al., 2011) have shown that, at least for pure states, the average evolution of independent photons in Young’s two-slit experiment is in compliance with the trajectories prescribed by the Bohmian formulation of quantum mechanics. But, what happens if the same experiment is repeated assuming that the wave function associated with each particle is different, i.e., in the case of mixed (incoherent) states? This question is investigated here by means of two alternative numerical simulations of Young’s experiment, purposely devised to be easily implemented and tested in the laboratory. Contrary to what could be expected a priori, it is found that even for conditions of maximal mixedness or incoherence (total lack of interference fringes), experimental data will render a puzzling and challenging outcome: the average particle trajectories will still display features analogous to those for pure states, i.e., independently of how mixedness arises, the associated dynamics is influenced by both slits at the same time. Physically this simply means that weak measurements are not able to discriminate how mixedness arises in the experiment, since they only provide information about the averaged system dynamics.     

Young's double-slit experiment in photonic crystals

We present an experimental and numerical study of the transmission of a photonic crystal perforated by two subwavelength slits, separated by two wavelengths. The experimental near-field image of the double-slit design of the photonic crystal shows an interference pattern, which is analogous to Young's experiment. This interference arises as a consequence of the excitation of surface states of the photonic crystals and agrees very well with the simulations.     

Interference of two photons of different color

We consider the interference of two photons with different colors in the context of a Hong-Ou-Mandel experiment, in which single photons enter each of the input ports of a beam splitter, and exit together in the same, albeit undetermined, output port. Such interference is possible if one uses an active (energy-non-conserving) beam splitter. We find scenarios in which one “red” and one “blue” photon enter the beam splitter, and either two red or two blue photons exit, but never one of each color. We show how the precise form of the active beam-splitter transformation determines in what way the spectral degrees of freedom of the input photons should be related to each other for perfect destructive interference of the different-color components in the output. We discuss two examples of active beam splitters: one is a gedanken experiment involving a moving mirror and the other is a more realistic example involving four-wave mixing in an optical fiber.     

Light interference and the absence of definite values of measured quantities a priori

The peculiarities of the behavior of photons in various experimental situations are considered. Variants of double-beam interference of a single photon and the possibility of forming a standing wave by this photon are analyzed; three-beam interference is also discussed. The effects observed in this case prove the absence of particular values of the measured quantities up to the moment of measurement; in the latter case, the number of photons in the field does not a priori have a certain value, in spite of the fact that the system is in the energy state. An experiment is also considered that proves the absence of a certain phase and the phase difference of photons in the Fock state, which makes it possible to treat different types of theories of hidden parameters, including nonlocal ones, more critically.     

Plasmid DNA damage induced by helium atmospheric pressure plasma jet

Recently demonstrated ghost interference using correlated photons of different frequencies, has been theoretically analyzed. The calculation predicts an interesting nonlocal effect: the fringe width of the ghost interference depends not only on the wave-length of the photon involved, but also on the wavelength of the other photon with which it is entangled. This feature, arising because of different frequencies of the entangled photons, was hidden in the original ghost interference experiment. This prediction can be experimentally tested in a slightly modified version of the experiment.     

Chaotic dephasing in a double-slit scattering experiment

We design a computational experiment in which a quantum particle tunnels into a billiard of variable shape and scatters out of it through a double-slit opening on the billiard's base. The interference patterns produced by the scattered probability currents for a range of energies are investigated in relation to the billiard's geometry which is connected to its classical integrability. Four billiards with hierarchical integrability levels are considered: integrable, pseudointegrable, weak-mixing, and strongly chaotic. In agreement with the earlier result by Casati and Prosen [Phys. Rev. A 72, 032111 (2005)], we find the billiard's integrability to have a crucial influence on the properties of the interference patterns. In the integrable case, most experiment outcomes are found to be consistent with the constructive interference occurring in the usual double-slit experiment. In contrast to this, nonintegrable billiards typically display asymmetric interference patterns of smaller visibility characterized by weakly correlated wave function values at the two slits. Our findings indicate an intrinsic connection between the classical integrability and the quantum dephasing, which is responsible for the destruction of interference.     

干涉、衍射实验中衍射物位置的估算

从光源的空间相干性和实际光源的边缘衍射特性两个方面分析给出了干涉、衍射实验中衍射物到光源的距离的估算公式,分析了双缝干涉和泊松亮斑两个实验实例.     

Stimulated emission as a result of multiphoton interference

By performing an experiment on stimulated emission by two photons in the parametric amplification process and comparing it to a three-photon interference scheme, we present evidence in support of the idea that the underlying physics of stimulated emission is simply the constructive interference due to photon indistinguishability. So the observed signal enhancement upon the input of photons can be interpreted as a result of multiphoton interference of the input photons and the otherwise spontaneously emitted photon from the amplifier.     

On the origin of laser coherence

It is shown that the light created in the process of the “emission of many photons by many atoms”, as treated recently by Ernst and Stehle, has extreme coherence properties. In particular, it leads to spatial interference effects between radiation from two distinct sources of this type. Under certain conditions this interference even can become optimal in the sense that the intensity minima vanish. Furthermore, in the sense of the definition of Glauber, the light field produced in this process is practically coherent to the ordern～N, whereN is the the number of emitted photons. One arrives at a natural and simple interpretation of two-laser interference experiments of Magyar and Mandel, and Pfleegor and Mandel, if one assumes that the mentioned process constitutes the primary creation mechanism of laser light. It is shown that and how the physically important features of laser activity can be understood on the base of this assumption.     

Four-photon interference with asymmetric beam splitters

Two experiments of four-photon interference are performed with two pairs of photons from parametric downconversion with the help of asymmetric beam splitters. The first experiment is a generalization of the Hong-Ou-Mandel interference effect to two pairs of photons while the second one utilizes this effect to demonstrate a four-photon de Broglie wavelength of lambda/4 by projection measurement.     

De Broglian probabilities in the double-slit experiment

A new probability interpretation of interference phenomena in the double-slit experiment is proposed. It differs from the standard interpretation (based on elementary events happening in complementary, mutually exclusive setups—arrivals of waves to the screen when one of the slits is closed) which encounters the paradox that the law of total probability is violated. This new interpretation is free of such difficulties and paradoxes since it is based on compatible elementary events (events happening in the same setup in which happenall events considered—arrivals of quantons to the screen when both slits are open). Quantum objects—quantons—possess simultaneously particle and wave properties. Compatible statistical interpretation synthesizes in a consistent way the superposition principle for waves and the law of total probability applied to compatible events. Such synthesis is a theoretical expression of de Broglie's observation, now fully confirmed by experiments, that the interference fringes obtained on a photographic plate result from an infinite number of tiny local spots which display arrival of quantons, while the set of fringes is a statistical effect of the wave aspect.     

New experimental results on the interference of the states of the hydrogen atom due to long-range interaction with the metal surface

The interference of the 2P state of the hydrogen atom due to unknown long-range interaction with the metal surface (Sokolov effect) has been studied by an atomic interferometer. In contrast to previous experiments, where an atomic beam passed through slits in metal plates, a beam in the presented experiments passes at a given distance from the edges of the plates. It has been found that the interference is clearly observed if two plates are located on the same side of the beam. However, this interference disappears if one plate is displaced to the opposite side. This result cannot be explained in the framework of the available hypotheses on the nature of the effect under investigation.     

Polarization singularities in Young's two-slit experiment

Young's interference experiment is regarded as a two-slit diffraction phenomenon, the polarization singularities in Young's two-slit configuration illuminated with two linearly, orthogonally polarized Gaussian vortex beams are studied. It is shown that generally, there exist L-lines (linearly polarization) and polarization singularities including C-points (circular polarization), S₂₃ and S₃₁ singularities even though the parameters of two beams are the same. The pair creation-annihilation and motion of polarization singularities take place upon propagation, or by varying a control parameter, such as the amplitude ratio of two beams or obscure ratio of slits etc. For a special case of the illumination with two linearly, orthogonally polarized Gaussian vortex-free beams, polarization singularities, in particular, C-points may occur if a parameter of two beams is not equal.