Quantum nonlocality and interferometry

Gerhard Grössing, Siegfried Fussy, J Mesa Pascasio +1 more

Based on our model of quantum systems as emerging from the coupled dynamics between oscillating "bouncers" and the space-filling zero-point field, a sub-quantum account of nonlocal correlations is given. This is explicitly done for the example of the "double two-slit" variant of two-particle interferometry. However, it is also shown that the entanglement in two-particle interferometry is only a natural consequence of the fact that already a "single" two-slit experiment can be described on a sub-quantum level with the aid of "entangling currents" of a generally nonlocal nature.

F. De Martini, G. Denardo, Anton Zeilinger

Mankei Tsang

In astronomy, interferometry of light collected by separate telescopes is often performed by physically bringing the optical paths together in the form of Young's double-slit experiment. Optical loss severely limits the efficiency of this so-called direct detection method, motivating the fundamental question of whether one can achieve a comparable performance using separate optical measurements at the two telescopes before combining the measurement results. Using quantum mechanics and estimation theory, here I show that any such spatially local measurement scheme, such as heterodyne detection, is fundamentally inferior to coherently nonlocal measurements, such as direct detection, for estimating the mutual coherence of bipartite thermal light when the average photon flux is low. This surprising result reveals an overlooked signature of quantum nonlocality in a classic optics experiment.

J. D. Franson

Several recent papers have shown that some forms of dispersion cancellation have classical analogs and that some aspects of nonlocal two-photon interferometry are consistent with local realistic models. It is noted here that the classical analogs only apply to local dispersion cancellation experiments [A. M. Steinberg, P. G. Kwiat, and R. Y. Chiao, Phys. Rev. Lett. 68, 2421 (1992)] and that nonlocal dispersion cancellation [J. D. Franson, Phys. Rev. A 45, 3126 (1992)] is inconsistent with any classical field theory and has no classical analog. The local models that have been suggested for two-photon interferometry are shown to be local but not realistic if the spatial extent of the interferometers is taken into account. It is the inability of classical models to describe all of the relevant aspects of these experiments that distinguishes between quantum and classical physics, which is also the case in Bell's inequality.

Mary Bell, Shan Gao