Nonlinear Riccati and Ermakov equations are combined to pair the energy spectrum of 2 different quantum systems via the Darboux method. One of the systems is assumed Hermitian, exactly solvable, with discrete energies in its spectrum. The other system is characterized by a complex‐valued potential that inherits all the energies of the former one and includes an additional real eigenvalue in its discrete spectrum. If such eigenvalue coincides with any discrete energy (or it is located between 2 discrete energies) of the initial system, its presence produces no singularities in the complex‐valued potential. Non‐Hermitian systems with spectrum that includes all the energies of either Morse or trigonometric Pöschl‐Teller potentials are introduced as concrete examples.

The purposes of this work are (1) to show that the appropriate generalizations of the oscillator algebra permit the construction of a wide set of nonlinear coherent states in unified form and (2) to clarify the likely contradiction between the nonclassical properties of such nonlinear coherent states and the possibility of finding a classical analog for them since they are -represented by a delta function. In (1) we prove that a class of nonlinear coherent states can be constructed to satisfy a closure relation that is expressed uniquely in terms of the Meijer -function. This property automatically defines the delta distribution as the -representation of such states. Then, in principle, there must be a classical analog for them. Among other examples, we construct a family of nonlinear coherent states for a representation of the su(1, 1) Lie algebra that is realized as a deformation of the oscillator algebra. In (2), we use a beam splitter to show that the nonlinear coherent states exhibit properties like antibunching that prohibit a classical description for them. We also show that these states lack second-order coherence. That is, although the -representation of the nonlinear coherent states is a delta function, they are not full coherent. Therefore, the systems associated with the generalized oscillator algebras cannot be considered "classical" in the context of the quantum theory of optical coherence.

We substitute the fully absorbing obstacle in the Elitzur-Vaidman experiment by a semitransparent object and show that the probabilities of detection can be manipulated in dependence of the transparency of such an object. Then, we connect our results with the delayed choice experiment proposed by Wheeler. It is found that the transparency of the obstacle determines either a particle-like or a wave-like behaviour of a test photon.

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