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Physical Review A

Disappearance and reappearance of macroscopic quantum interference

Thomas F. Jordan

Published Sep 1, 1993• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A simple experiment with ordinary interference of macroscopic laser beams is proposed which demonstrates that interference can be made to disappear and reappear, as in a ``quantum eraser,'' without using an entangled state.
DOI
10.1103/physreva.48.2449

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Interaction with a measuring apparatus can cause otherwise interfering paths of a particle to become distinguishable. Under some conditions, however, it is possible to ``erase'' the distinguishability, thereby restoring interference. The concept of a quantum eraser is useful for understanding the role of entanglement in interference. Several attempts to investigate the phenomenon have been made using the correlated photons from spontaneous parametric down-conversion. However, none of the experiments previously performed in connection with quantum erasure has provided an optimal demonstration. We propose three improved down-conversion schemes, each of which satisfies all the criteria for a true quantum eraser. As the proposed schemes are all modifications or combinations of previously completed experiments, they are deemed to be feasible.
In this paper we will first look at a particular quantum eraser setup to show that this type of experiments can be understood in an intuitive manner if we are willing to take a complex nonlinear approach, without the need to invoke Niels Bohr's complementarity or quantum entanglement between two particles. We will then discuss a recent experiment of the same type that does not erase the interference pattern when which-path information is available, and argue that this result is in clear contradiction with the orthodox interpretation of quantum mechanics but perfectly understandable in the framework of nonlinear quantum physics.
We introduce a simple experiment involving a double-slit interferometer by which one can learn basic concepts of quantum interference such as which-path marking, quantum erasers, and geometric phases. Each of them exhibits seemingly mysterious phenomena in quantum physics. In our experiment, we use the double-slit interference of visible light with the polarization as an internal state to demonstrate the disappearance of fringes by which-path marking, recovery of interference using quantum erasers, and the rapid shifting of the fringe pattern induced by the geometric phase. We also present a simple theoretical analysis of an interferometer with an internal state.