The Physics of Interference Phenomena

Valerio Scarani

The essential features of quantum physics, largely debated since its discovery, are presented in this book, through the description (without mathematics) of recent experiments. Putting the accent on physical phenomena, this book clarifies the historical issues (delocalisation, interferences) and reaches out to modern topics (quantum cryptography, non-locality and teleportation); the debate on interpretations is serenely reviewed. - ;Quantum physics is often perceived as a weird and abstract theory, which physicists must use in order to make correct predictions. But many recent experiments have shown that the weirdness of the theory simply mirrors the weirdness of phenomena: it is Nature itself, and not only our description of it, that behaves in an astonishing way. This book selects those, among these typical quantum phenomena, whose rigorous description requires neither the formalism, nor an important. background in physics. The first part of the book deals with the phenomenon of single-particle interference, covering the historical questions of wave-particle duality, objective randomness and the boundary between the quantum and the classical world, but also the recent idea of quantum cryptography. The second part introduces the modern theme of entanglement, by presenting two-particle interference phenomena and discussing Bell''s inequalities. A concise review of the main interpretations of quantum physics is. provided. - ;Overall though, for a quick (100pp) introduction to some of the more esoteric aspects of Quantum Physics for someone without any prior knowledge of physics training, the book is superb. - J.Garibaldi, Journal of the Operational Research Society (2007) 58

A. Shalom, J. Žák

Jeffrey Alan Barrett

Abstract Moving to more subtle experiments, we consider how the standard formulation of quantum mechanics predicts and explains interference phenomena. Tracking the conditions under which one observes interference phenomena leads to the notion of quantum decoherence. We see why one must sharply distinguish between collapse phenomena and decoherence phenomena on the standard formulation of quantum mechanics. While collapses explain determinate measurement records, environmental decoherence just produces more complex, entangled states where the physical systems involved lack ordinary physical properties. We characterize the quantum-mechanical wave function as both an element of a Hilbert space and a complex-valued function over a configuration space. We also discuss how the wave function is interpreted in the standard theory.

A.W.S. Chandana, Withana P. Siripala, N. de Silva

Stefano Mancini, Vladimir I. Man’ko, Paolo Tombesi

We show how the introduction of an algebaric field deformation affects the interference phenomena. We also give a physical interpretation of the developed theory.

Jerry B. Marion, Mark A. Heald