Quantum Interference by Entangled Trajectories

Craig Brooksby, Oleg V. Prezhdo

Nicola Cufaro Petroni, Jean Pierre Vigier

Feng Xu, Lifei Wang, Xiaodong Cui

The quantum interference pattern in the double-slit experiment is qualitatively reproduced by using the entangled trajectory molecular dynamics method and compared with previous works. We compare entangled trajectory and classical trajectory with the same initial state in the phase space to show quantum effect in the evolution of trajectories. It is involved with breakdown in the statistical independence of the trajectories. Although our result does not agree well with exact quantum calculation in quantitatively with loss of part of interference pattern peaks, we can offer a reasonable explanation by analyzing quantum interference of two Gaussian wave packets in the phase space.

Kiran Mathew, Moncy V. John

Edward R. Floyd

Izhar Neder, Nissim Ofek, Yunchul Chung +3 more

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.