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arXiv:1608.01450 · Physical Review A

Experimental test of Bohr's complementarity principle with single neutral atoms

Zhihui Wang, Yali Tian, Yang Chen, Pengfei Zhang, Gang Li, Tiancai Zhang

Published Dec 29, 2016• 11 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

An experimental test of the quantum complementarity principle based on single neutral atoms trapped in a blue detuned bottle trap was here performed. A Ramsey interferometer was used to assess the wavelike behavior or particlelike behavior with second $\ensuremath{\pi}/2$ rotation on or off. The wavelike behavior or particlelike behavior is characterized by the visibility $V$ of the interference or the predictability $P$ of which-path information, respectively. The measured results fulfill the complementarity relation ${P}^{2}+{V}^{2}\ensuremath{\le}1$. Imbalance losses were deliberately introduced to the system and we find the complementarity relation is then formally ``violated.'' All the experimental results can be completely explained theoretically by quantum mechanics without considering the interference between wave and particle behaviors. This observation complements existing information concerning Bohr's complementarity principle based on wave-particle duality of a massive quantum system.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.94.062124

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An experimental test of the quantum complementarity principle based on single neutral atoms trapped in a blue detuned bottle trap was here performed. A Ramsey interferometer was used to assess the wavelike behavior or particlelike behavior with second \ensuremathπ/2\ensuremath{\pi}/2\ensuremathπ/2 rotation on or off. The wavelike behavior or particlelike behavior is characterized by the visibility VVV of the interference or the predictability PPP of which-path information, respectively. The measured results fulfill the complementarity relation P2+V2\ensuremath≤1{P}^{2}+{V}^{2}\ensuremath{\le}1P2+V2\ensuremath≤1. Imbalance losses were deliberately introduced to the system and we find the complementarity relation is then formally ``violated.'' All the experimental results can be completely explained theoretically by quantum mechanics without considering the interference between wave and particle behaviors. This observation complements existing information concerning Bohr's complementarity principle based on wave-particle duality of a massive quantum system.
One of the milestones of quantum mechanics is Bohr's complementarity principle. It states that a single quantum can exhibit a particlelike ororor a wavelike behavior, but never both at the same time. These are mutually exclusive and complementary aspects of the quantum system. This means that we need distinct experimental arrangements in order to measure the particle or the wave nature of a physical system. One of the most known representations of this principle is the single-photon Mach-Zehnder interferometer. When the interferometer is closed an interference pattern is observed (wave aspect of the quantum) while if it is open, the quantum behaves like a particle. Here, using a molecular quantum information processor and employing nuclear magnetic resonant (NMR) techniques, we analyze the quantum version of this principle by means of an interferometer that is in a quantum superposition of being closed and open, and confirm that we can indeed measure both aspects of the system with the same experimental apparatus. More specifically, we observe with a single apparatus the interference between the particle and the wave aspects of a quantum system.
Bohr's principle of complementarity (BPC) is the cornerstone of quantum mechanics. According to this principle, the total wavelike and particlelike information of a particle is limited by the Englert-Greenberger (EG) duality relation. Here, by introducing a quantum detecting device into the experiment, we find that the limit of the EG duality relation is exceeded because of the interference between the wave and particle properties of the photon. A generalized EG duality relation is further developed. Our work provides a generalization of BPC and gives new insights into quantum mechanics.
A recent experiment performed by Afshar et al. has been interpreted as a violation of Bohr's complementarity principle between interference visibility and which-path information a two-path interferometer. The authors have reproduced the same experiment, using true single-photon pulses emitted by a single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color center in a diamond crystal and propagating in a two-path wavefront-splitting interferometer realized with a Fresnels' biprism, followed by a grating with transmitting slits of adjustable width. The experimental setup is illustrated. The results go far beyond the reported results in the previous works of Afshar et al. and the subtle flaws in their analysis are then pointed out. The measured values of the interference visibility V and the which-path information, characterized by the distinguishability parameter D, are found, with values close to the ideal-case upper bound. This result demonstrates that the experiment can be perfectly explained by the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, without any violation of Bohr's complementarity principle.
A recent experiment performed by Afshar et al (2007 Found. Phys. 37 295–305) has been interpreted as a violation of Bohr's complementarity principle between interference visibility and which-path information (WPI) in a two-path interferometer. We have reproduced this experiment, using true single-photon pulses propagating in a two-path wavefront-splitting interferometer realized with a Fresnel's biprism, and followed by a grating with adjustable transmitting slits. The measured values of interference visibility V and WPI, characterized by the distinguishability parameter D , are found to obey the complementarity relation V 2 + D 2 ⩽1. This result demonstrates that the experiment can be perfectly explained by the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics.
Bohr's complementarity principle is of fundamental historic and conceptual importance for quantum mechanics (QM), and states that, with a given experimental apparatus configuration, one can observe either the wave-like or the particle-like character of a quantum system, but not both. However, it was eventually realized that these dual behaviors can both manifest partially in the same experimental setup, and, using ad hoc proposed measures for the wave and particle aspects of the quanton, complementarity relations were proposed limiting how strong these manifestations can be. Recently, a formalism was developed and quantifiers for the particleness and waveness of a quantum system were derived from the mathematical structure of QM entailed in the density matrix's basic properties ($\ensuremath{\rho}\ensuremath{\ge}0, \mathrm{Tr}\ensuremath{\rho}=1$). In this article, using IBM Quantum Experience quantum computers, we perform experimental tests of these complementarity relations applied to a particular class of one-qubit quantum states and also for random quantum states of one, two, and three qubits.
Updating the wave-particle duality Maria C. Bosca e-mail: bosca@ugr.es Departamento de Fisica Atomica, Molecular y Nuclear Universidad de Granada E-18071. Granada Spain The wave-particle-duality, the fundamental component of the new quantum formalism in Bohr’s opinion, must be reformulated by incorporating the results of some experiments accomplished in the last decades of twentieth century. The Bohr´s complementarity principle stated the mutual exclusiveness and joint full completeness of the two (classical) descriptions of quantum systems; after Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen’paper, the wave-particle duality, or wave-particle complementarity, could be expressed by stating that it is impossible to build up an experimental arrangement in which we observe at the same time both corpuscular and wave aspects. In a two-slit experiment, they would correspond, respectively, to the which-way knowledge and the observation of interference pattern. Bohr showed this mutual exclusivity in numerous examples , and linked it to the unavoidable disturbance inherent in any measurement event. In quantum mechanical formalism, the complementarity principle has a clear mathematical expression: two observables are complementary if precise knowledge of one of them implies that all possible outcomes of the other are equally probable; their extension to classical concepts (as wave and particle) is not concerned. In 1991 Scully et al published a variant of the two-slit experiment that incorporates two micromasers cavities and a laser beam to provide which-path information without net momentum transferred during the interaction ; the impossibility of know which slit an atom went through and still observe the interference fringes is preserved by the establishing of quantum correlations between the measuring apparatus and the system being observed. They claimed that complementarity, of which wave-particle duality would be to them a manifestation, is more fundamental than the uncertainty principle . In 1996 B-G. Englert, following an approach originally due to Wooters and Zurek , derived , without making use of Heisenberg’s uncertainty relation, an inequality that quantifies the mutual compatibility relation between fringe visibility and which-way information. The inequality, that they denominated as “interferometric duality”, has the expression D^2 + V^2 ≤ 1, where D stands for the distinguishability of the ways and V for the fringe visibility; both of them are mathematical expressions that can be measured to check experimentally the inequality . Today, it is clear that intermediate particle-wave behaviours exist and, in addition to that, there are single experiments in which both classical wave-like and particle-like behaviours are showed total and simultaneously on an individual system. For instance, in the Bose’s double-prism experiment , tunnelling and perfect anticoincidence were observed in single photon states. Consequently, the meaning of the wave-particle duality must incorporate the simultaneous use of the two classical descriptions in the interpretation of experiments, loosing their original mutual exclusivity , which is incorporated as an extreme case in the new interferometric duality, a continuous quantum concept . The wave-particle duality, therefore, must be formulated as an interpretative addition to quantum mechanics, to which is possible to renounce if any pretension of visualize quantum phenomena in terms of classical concepts and intuitions is abandoned.