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Annalen der Physik

Quantum interference of charged identical particles

Hans A. De Raedt, Kristel F. L. Michielsen

Published Jan 1, 1995• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract We present the results of a computer simulation study of charged‐particle interferometry, combining features of both the Aharonov‐Bohm and Hanbury Brown‐Twiss experiment. In contrast to a previous theoretical analysis of this experiment, we find that the Aharonov‐Bohm effect is also present in the cross‐correlated two‐particle intensity. A simple, time‐independent scattering theory that leads to conclusions that are in concert with the simulation data is given.

DOI
10.1002/andp.19955070706

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Annalen der Physik•Oct 10, 2007•0 citations
Abstract We present the results of a computer simulation study of charged‐particle interferometry, combining features of both the Aharonov‐Bohm and Hanbury Brown‐Twiss experiment. In contrast to a previous theoretical analysis of this experiment, we find that the Aharonov‐Bohm effect is also present in the cross‐correlated two‐particle intensity. A simple, time‐independent scattering theory that leads to conclusions that are in concert with the simulation data is given.
Examples of charged-particle interferometry are descibed whereby isolated magnetic fields—i.e., fields through which the particles do not pass—influence the clustering, as well as spatial distribution, of the particles. The configurations, which combine features characteristic of (i) Aharonov–Bohm and Hanbury Brown–Twiss experiments, and (ii) Aharonov–Bohm and Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen experiments, manifest simultaneously the effects of three distinct kinds of interference: (i) interference, dependent upon optical path length difference, resulting from wavelike propagation of particles; (ii) interference, dependent upon confined magnetic flux, resulting from particle charge and spatial topology; and (iii) interference, dependent upon quantum statistics, resulting from particle indistinguishability under exchange.
Very much like the ubiquitous quantum interference of a single particle with itself, quantum interference of two independent, but indistinguishable, particles is also possible. This interference is a direct result of quantum exchange statistics, however, it is observed only in the joint probability to find the particles in two separated detectors. Here we report the first observation of such interference fringes between two independent and non-interacting electrons in an interferometer proposed by Yurke et al. and Samuelsson et al. Our experiment resembles the "Hanbury Brown and Twiss" (HBT) experiment, which was performed with classical waves. In the experiment, two independent and mutually incoherent electron beams were each partitioned into two trajectories. The combined four trajectories enclosed an Aharonov-Bohm (AB) flux (but not the two trajectories of a single electron). While individual currents were found to be independent of the AB flux, as expected, the cross-correlation between current fluctuations in two opposite points across the device exhibited strong AB oscillations. This is a direct signature of orbital entanglement between two electrons even though they never interact with each other.
Interference experiments characterized by the degree of first-order coherence (Young’s fringes, Fresnel, and Fraunhofer diffraction, etc.) have been performed with massive particles, in particular electrons and neutrons, as well as with light. Optical intensity interference or correlation experiments characterized by the degree of second-order coherence have not yet been performed with particles. The theory for such experiments shows striking differences in the behavior of electrons compared with that of light deriving from the differences in quantum statistics and charge. Photons are neutral bosons. They can be prepared in states that exhibit bunching, no bunching, or antibunching; they are unaffected by the presence of electromagnetic potentials. Electrons are charged fermions. Theory indicates that they exhibit antibunching regardless of the coherence of the source, and that their degree of second-order coherence can be influenced by electromagnetic fields through which they do not pass. A remarkable example is the Hanbury Brown-Twiss experiment with electrons that have interacted locally with the vector potential of an inaccessible magnetic field. The electron intensity correlation at two detectors is shown to be sensitive to the confined magnetic flux; experimental conditions differ considerably from those of the well-known Aharonov-Bohm effect.
The Hanbury Brown–Twiss (HBT) effect, at the quantum level, is essentially an interference of one particle with another, as opposed to interference of a particle with itself. Conventional treatments of identical particles encounter difficulties while dealing with entanglement. A recently introduced label-free approach to indistinguishable particles is described, and is used to analyze the HBT effect. Quantum wave-packets have been used to provide a better understanding of the quantum interpretation of the HBT effect. The effect is demonstrated for two independent particles governed by Bose–Einstein or Fermi–Dirac statistics. The HBT effect is also analyzed for pairs of entangled particles. Surprisingly, entanglement has almost no effect on the interference seen in the HBT effect. In the light of the results, an old quantum optics experiment is reanalyzed, and it is argued that the interference seen in that experiment is not a consequence of non-local correlations between the photons, as is commonly believed. Quanta 2017; 6: 61–69.
We analyze a Hanbury Brown-Twiss geometry in which particles are injected from two independent sources into a mesoscopic conductor in the quantum Hall regime. All partial waves end in different reservoirs without generating any single-particle interference; in particular, there is no single-particle Aharonov-Bohm effect. However, exchange effects lead to two-particle Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in the zero-frequency current cross correlations. We demonstrate that this is related to two-particle orbital entanglement, detected via violation of a Bell inequality. The transport is along edge states and only adiabatic quantum point contacts and normal reservoirs are employed.
Abstract Theory predicts that electrons emitted from independent electron sources (metallic contacts) can nevertheless interfere. This interference is manifest in an exchange contribution to the shot noise correlation of currents at different contacts of a mesoscopic conductor. A geometry has been proposed in which second order (single particle) interference due to superposition of amplitudes is absent but fourth order (two‐particle) interference exhibits Aharonov‐Bohm oscillations. Recently such a geometry has been realized in an experiment and the theoretically predicted two‐particle Aharonov‐Bohm effect has been detected. We discuss Bell measurements and quantum state tomography using shot noise correlations. We discuss in addition structures in which two‐particle interference effects are generated dynamically by varying electrostatic potentials with the help of gates or by generating electron‐hole pairs by irradiating contacts of a mesoscopic conductor. These examples emphasize that two‐particle processes are not related to a particular geometry but are a general feature of multiparticle observables like shot noise correlations.