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Physica Scripta

Quantum Phenomena Studied by Neutron Interferometry

Helmut Rauch

Published Jan 1, 1998• 8 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Neutrons are proper tools for testing quantum mechanics because they are massive, they couple to electromagnetic fields due to their magnetic moment and they are subject to all basic interactions and they are sensitive to topological effects, as well. Related experiments will be discussed. Recent neutron interferometry experiments based on postselection methods renewed the discussion about quantum nonlocality and the quantum measuring process. It has been shown that interference phenomena can be revived even when the overall interference pattern has lost its contrast. This indicates a persisting coupling in phase space even in cases of spatially separated Schrödinger Cat-like situations. These states are extremely fragile and sensitive against any kind of fluctuations and other decoherence processes. More complete quantum experiments also show that a complete retrieval of quantum states behind an interaction volume becomes impossible in principle.

DOI
10.1238/physica.topical.076a00024

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Neutrons are proper tools for testing quantum mechanics because they are massive, they couple to electromagnetic fields due to their magnetic moment and they are subject to all basic interactions and they are sensitive to topological effects, as well. Related experiments will be discussed. Recent neutron interferometry experiments based on postselection methods renewed the discussion about quantum nonlocality and the quantum measuring process. It has been shown that interference phenomena can be revived even when the overall interference pattern has lost its contrast. This indicates a persisting coupling in phase space even in cases of spatially separated Schrödinger Cat-like situations. These states are extremely fragile and sensitive against any kind of fluctuations and other decoherence processes. More complete quantum experiments also show that a complete retrieval of quantum states behind an interaction volume becomes impossible in principle.
Neutrons are proper tools for testing quantum mechanics because they are massive, they couple to electromagnetic fields due to their magnetic moment and they are subject to all basic interactions and they are sensitive to topological effects, as well. Related experiments will be discussed. Deterministic and stochastic partial absorption experiments can be described by Bell-type inequalities. Recent neutron interferometry experiments based on postselection methods renewed the discussion about quantum nonlocality and the quantum measuring process. It has been shown that interference phenomena can be revived even when the overall interference pattem has lost its contrast. This indicates a persisting coupling in phase space even in cases of spatially separated Schrödingercat-like situations. These states are extremely fragile and sensitive against any kind of fluctuations and other decoherence processes. More complete quantum experiments also show that a complete retrieval of quantum states behind an interaction volume becomes impossible in principle. First results of neutron quantum state reconstruction experiments will be presented.
Entanglement of two photons, or atoms is a complementary situation to a double slit situation of a single photon, neutron or atom. With neutrons single particle interference phenomena can be observed and the “entanglement of degrees of freedom”, i.e. contextuality can be verified. In this respect, neutrons are proper tools for testing quantum mechanics because they are massive, they couple to electromagnetic fields due to their magnetic moment and they are subject to all basic interactions, and they are sensitive to topological effects, as well. Related experiments will be discussed. Deterministic and stochastic partial absorption experiments can be described by Bell‐type inequalities. Recent neutron interferometry experiments based on postselection methods renewed the discussion about quantum nonlocality and the quantum measuring process. It has been shown that interference phenomena can be revived even when the overall interference pattern has lost its contrast. This indicates a persisting coupling in phase space even in cases of spatially separated Schrödinger cat‐like situations. These states are extremely fragile and sensitive against any kind of fluctuations and other decoherence processes. More complete quantum experiments also show that a complete retrieval of quantum states behind an interaction volume becomes impossible in principle.
Single-particle interference phenomena can be observed with neutrons, and the "entanglement of degrees of freedom", i.e. the contextuality, can be verified and used in further experiments. Entanglement of two photons or atoms is a complementary situation to the double-slit diffraction of a single photon, neutron, or atom. In this respect, neutrons are proper tools for testing quantum mechanics, because they are massive, they couple to electromagnetic fields due to their magnetic moment, and they are subject to all basic interactions, and they are sensitive to topological effects as well. The4π-symmetry of spinor wave functions, the spin-superposition law, and many topological phenomena can be made visible, which shows interesting intrinsic features of quantum physics. Related experiments will be discussed. Deterministic and stochastic partial absorption experiments can be described by Bell-type inequalities. Recent neutron interferometry experiments based on post-selection methods have renewed the discussion about quantum non-locality and the quantum measuring process. It has been shown that interference phenomena can be revived even when the overall interference pattern has lost its contrast. This indicates a persisting coupling in the phase space even in cases of spatially separated Schrödinger cat-like situations. These states are extremely fragile and sensitive against any kind of fluctuations and other de-coherence processes. More complete quantum experiments also show that a complete retrieval of quantum states behind an interaction volume becomes impossible in principle.
Neutron interferometry provides a powerful tool to investigate particle and wave features in quantum physics. Single particle interference phenomena can be observed with neutrons and the entanglement of degrees of freedom, i.e., contextuality can be verified and used in further experiments. Entanglement of two photons, or atoms, is analogous to a double slit diffraction of a single photon, neutron or atom. Neutrons are proper tools for testing quantum mechanics because they are massive, they couple to electromagnetic fields due to their magnetic moment, they are subject to all basic interactions, and they are sensitive to topological effects, as well. The 4π-symmetry of spinor wave functions, the spin-superposition law and many topological phenomena can be made visible, thus showing interesting intrinsic features of quantum physics. Related experiments will be discussed. Deterministic and stochastic partial absorption experiments can be described by Bell-type inequalities. Neutron interferometry experiments based on post-selection methods renewed the discussion about quantum non-locality and the quantum measuring process. It has been shown that interference phenomena can be revived even when the overall interference pattern has lost its contrast. This indicates a persisting coupling in phase space even in cases of spatially separated Schrödinger cat-like situations. These states are extremely fragile and sensitive against any kind of fluctuations and other decoherence processes. More complete quantum experiments also show that a complete retrieval of quantum states behind an interaction volume becomes impossible in principle, but where and when a collapse of the wave-field occurs depends on the level of experiment.
Neutrons are proper tools for testing basic laws of quantum physics since they are massive and can be handled and measured with high efficiency. Suitable postselection experiments demonstrate coherence features of sub-ensembles even when the whole ensemble seems to have lost its coherence. All experiments have the capacity to explain more details by additional pre- and post-selection methods. It will be shown that specific losses are unavoidable in any interaction. Coherence and decoherence are intrinsic quantum effects and can shed light on the measurement problem. Quantum contextuality is a consequence of the entanglement of different degrees of freedom. This makes quantum phenomena more strongly correlated than classical ones. Most experiments have been performed with perfect neutron interferometers and some others by using ultracold neutrons and spin-echo systems. An event by event based interpretation can also be brought into agreement with the experimental results. In many cases parasitic beams carry the same information as the main beam and this relates such measurements to "weak" measurements. The coupling and entanglement of various parameter spaces guide us to a more elaborate discussion of quantum effects.
Quantum mechanics with massive particles becomes an important tool for fundamental research and applied science since many previously named "Gedanken" experiments become feasible. Neutrons are massive particles which couple to gravitational, nuclear and electro-magnetic interactions and they are sensitive to topological effects as well. Therefore they are proper tools for testing quantum mechanics where several previously named "hidden" parameters become measurable. Widely separated coherent beams can be produced by means of perfect crystal interferometers and they can be influenced individually. Spinor symmetry, spin superposition and quantum beat effect experiments have been performed and topological phases have been observed. Recent experiments related to the decoherence problem have shown that interference effects can be revived even when the overall interference pattern seems to be incoherent. All retrieval processes involve inherently unavoidable losses which stem partly from the theory itself and partly from an imperfect environment. Related post-selection experiments shed a new light on questions of quantum non-locality and support the request for more complete quantum measurements in the future. A more rational explanation of non-locality effects may be obtained when the plane wave components outside the wave packets are included in the discussion. This can also help to discuss entanglement and contextuality effects in a new light. In all quantum experiments more information can be extracted by more complete quantum experiments which will be important in the future to get a better understanding of quantum physics. An example may be the consideration of the Compton frequency and of proper time effects of matter waves.