A simple experiment for discussion of quantum interference and which-way measurement

American Journal of Physics

Volumn 70, Issue 3, 2002, Pages 266-271

  Schneider, Mark B ^a   LaPuma, Indhira A ^a,b  

^a GRINNELL COLLEGE   (United States)

^b NONE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 23044530146     PISSN: 00029505     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1119/1.1450558     Document Type: Article

References (25)

1. S. Dürr, T. Nonn, and G. Rempe, "Origin of quantum-mechanical complementarity probed by a 'which-way' experiment in an atom interferometer," Nature (London) 395, 33-37 (1998).
2. Peter D. D. Schwindt, Paul G. Kwiat, and Berthold-Georg Englert, "Quantitative wave-particle duality and non-erasing quantum erasure," Phys. Rev. A 60, 4285-4290 (1999).
3. Two such articles are by Wendell Holladay, "A simple quantum eraser," Phys. Lett. A183,280-282 (1993), and by Thomas F. Jordan, "Disappearance and reappearance of macroscopic quantum interference," Phys. Rev. A 48, 2449-2450 (1993).
4. Two examples are D. F. Walls, "A simple field theoretic description of photon interference," Am. J. Phys. 45, 952-956 (1977), and Thomas F. Jordan, "Choosing and rechoosing to have or have not interference," ibid. 69, 155-157 (2001). Jordan's article also analyzes a two-slit gedanken experiment with polarizers behind slits providing which-way information.
5. Y. Ben-Aryeh, D. Ludwin, and A. Mann, "A quantum mechanical description of electromagnetic and atom Mach-Zehnder interferometers," J. Opt. B: Quantum Semiclassical Opt. 3, 138-145 (2001).
6. Ilki Kim and Gunter Mahler, "Uncertainty rescued, Bohr's complementarity for composite systems," Phys. Lett. A 269, 287-292 (2000).
7. V. Kidambi, A. Widom, C. Lerner, and Y. N. Srivastava, "Photon polarization measurements without the quantum Zeno effect," Am. J. Phys. 68, 475-481 (2000).
8. BerthoId-Georg Englert, "Remarks on some basic issues in quantum mechanics," Z. Naturforsch., A: Phys. Sci. 54, 11-32 (1999). 9D. F. Walls, in Ref. 4.
9. l0 An analogy to the nonrelativistic Schrödinger equation can be developed,
10. but its application is limited; for example, see Richard A. Young, "Thinking of the photon as a quantum-mechanical particle," Am. J. Phys. 44, 1043-1046 (1976).
11. Gordon Baym, Lectures on Quantum Mechanics (W. A. Benjamin, New York, 1969), pp. 20-25.
12. A similar analysis is done for neutron interferometry by G. Badurek and H. Rauch, "Neutron interferometery." Physica B 276, 964-967 (2000).
13. I3 A. Einstein, B. Podolsky, and N. Rosen, "Can quantum-mechanical description of reality be considered complete?," Phys. Rev. 47, 777-780 (1935).
14. P. Bertet, S. Osnaghi, A. Rauschenbeutel, G. Nogues, A. Auffeves, M. Brune, J. M. Raimond, and S. Haroche, "A complementarity experiment with an interferometer at the quantum-classical boundary," Nature (London) 411, 166-170 (2001).
15. l5 Rodney Loudon, The Quantum Theory of Light (Oxford U.P., Oxford, 1983), 2nd ed., pp. 226-229.
16. P. A. M. Dirac, The Principles of Quantum Mechanics (Clarendon, Oxford, 1930), p. 15.
17. I7 F. Louradour, F. Reynaud, B. Colombeau, and C. Froehly, "Interference
18. fringes between two separate lasers," Am. J. Phys. 61, 242-245 (1993).
19. A review of such experiments is provided by H. Paul, "Interference between independent photons," Rev. Mod. Phys. 58, 209-231 (1986).
20. Lloyd M. Davis and C. Parigger, "Comment on 'Interference fringes between two separate lasers,' by F. Louradour et al. [Am. J. Phys. 61, 242- 245 (1993)]," Am. J. Phys. 62,951-952 (1994);
21. Philip R. Wallace, "Comment on 'Interference fringes between two separate lasers,' by F. Louradour et al. [Am. J. Phys. 61, 242-245 (1993)]," ibid. 62, 950 (1994);
22. Roy J. Glauber, "Dirac's famous dictum on interference: one photon or two?," ibid. 63, 12 (1995).
23. The relevant details are the subject of the quantization of the electromagnetic field, but the essential features are summarized nicely for the non- practitioner by Walls, see Ref. 4.
24. Two examples of such work are G. Badurek, H. Rauch, and D. Tuppinger, "Neutron interferometric double-resonance experiment," Phys. Rev. A 34, 2600-2608 (1986) and H. Rauch et al, "Verification of coherent spinor rotation of fermions," Phys. Lett. A 54, 425-427 (1975).
25. T. J. Axon, "Introducing Schrodinger's cat in the laboratory," Am. J. Phys. 57, 317-321 (1989).