Introducing Quantum Physics with Polarization

Alfredo Luis

Kristóf Tóth

Abstract In the 2019/20 school year I directed a teaching unit on quantum mechanics based on light polarization which enriched me with several experiences. Sometimes I faced problems because the obligatory Hungarian curriculum based on the wave nature of particles does not fit perfectly with the polarization approach of quantum physics. Nevertheless, I presented the polarization approach to my physics teacher colleagues too. Then I recognized some of the difficulties of Hungarian physics teachers in relation to this approach because they used to apply the wave approach. Thus, teacher training programmes should include the foundations of different approaches on equal footing, and in my opinion, teacher education should also respond to secondary school opportunities. In this article, I summarize the problems that may arise in applying the polarization approach in countries where wave formalism has a great tradition, like in Hungary. I also show why I personally prefer a 2-state approach in secondary school instead of the traditional wave formalism, and present what I have learned as a teacher. I highlight some of the requirements that arise when we intend to use polarization approach in physics teacher training programmes, and I make suggestions for teacher education too.

Chuanwei Gao, Xianfeng Tang, Qi Meng +7 more

In this paper, we propose an optical physical layer encryption method to encrypt the signal of polarization division multiplexing (PDM) coherent optical communication system by introducing an artificially controlled fast rotation of the state of polarization (RSOP) into the signal. Simulations conducted in a 40 Gbps PDM-QPSK system show that the authorized user can successfully decrypt the received signal, while the eavesdroppers cannot derive useful information with bit error rates (BER) at 0.38~0.48, which shows that the method effectively improves the security of the system.

Maria V. Chekhova, Peter Banzer

Carlos Prieto, Raffaele F. Vitolo

Abstract The formulation of geometric quantization contains several axioms and assumptions. We show that for real polarizations we can generalize the standard geometric quantization procedure by introducing an arbitrary connection on the polarization bundle. The existence of reducible quantum structures leads to considering the class of Liouville symplectic manifolds. Our main application of this modified geometric quantization scheme is to quantum mechanics on Riemannian manifolds. With this method we obtain an energy operator without the scalar curvature term that appears in the standard formulation, thus agreeing with the usual expression found in the physics literature.

V. S. Marchenko