Quantum interference in the time-of-flight distribution

Abstract

Abstract. We propose a scheme to experimentally observe matter-wave interference in the time domain, specifically in the arrival-time or the time-of-flight (TOF) distribution for atomic BEC Schrödinger-cat state represented by superposition of macroscopically separated wave packets in space. This is in contrast to interference in space at a fixed time observed in reported BEC experiments. We predict and quantify the quantum interference in the TOF distribution calculated from the modulus of the quantum probability current density (rather than the TOF distributions obtained from a purely classical or semi-classical treatment in many reported experiments). The interference and hence the coherence in the quantum TOF signal disappears in the large-mass limit. Our scheme has the potential to probe the validity of various other theoretical approaches (Phys. Rep. 338, 353 (2000)) of calculating the quantum arrival time distribution. PACS number(s): 03.65. Xp, 03.65.Ta

Non-local temporal interference

“…The arrival distributions computed so far should be called ideal or intrinsic distributions 102 , since the influence of the detector, before particles detection, has been ignored in our theoretical manner. Such an idealization is commonly used in most previous studies of Bohmian arrival time distribution (for example, see 6,43,67,[102][103][104] ), and seems more or less to be satisfactory in many applications including the double-slit experiment 58,99,105 . Nonetheless, in principle, the presence of the detector could modify the wave function evolution, even before the particle detection 106 .…”

“…Moreover, our approach to investigating this experiment can be applied to a wide range of phenomena, and it seems that the predicted non-local temporal interference and associated complementary relationship are universal behaviors of entangled quantum systems that may manifest in various phenomena.In quantum theory, several effects that were initially observed in the spatial domain have subsequently been observed in the time domain. These effects include a wide range of phenomena such as diffraction in time [1][2][3][4] , interference in time [5][6][7][8] , Anderson localization in time 9,10 and several others [11][12][13][14][15] . To extend this line of research, we propose a simple experimental setup that can be used to observe a non-local interference in arrival time, which is analogous to the non-local interference in arrival position observed in entangled particle systems [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] .The proposed experimental setup involves a double-double-slit arrangement in which a source emits pairs of entangled atoms toward slits 19,25 .…”

“…In quantum theory, several effects that were initially observed in the spatial domain have subsequently been observed in the time domain. These effects include a wide range of phenomena such as diffraction in time [1][2][3][4] , interference in time [5][6][7][8] , Anderson localization in time 9,10 and several others [11][12][13][14][15] . To extend this line of research, we propose a simple experimental setup that can be used to observe a non-local interference in arrival time, which is analogous to the non-local interference in arrival position observed in entangled particle systems [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] .…”