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Proposed Precision Test for Mass-Dependent Optical Coherence in a Mach-Zehnder Interferometer

Muhammad Umer

Published May 14, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Standard decoherence models predict that the degradation of optical fringe visibility is independent of the inertial mass of surrounding macroscopic bodies, provided environmental and information-theoretic couplings are held constant. We propose an experimental protocol to test for an unmodeled, mass-dependent decoherence channel. By parameterizing a hypothesized mass-coupled attenuation term, we derive a 1/r exponential visibility decay model resulting from the path integration of an inverse-square potential. We outline a modified Mach-Zehnder interferometer utilizing a decoupled 10kgTungsten mass placed near a single optical arm, including a strict symmetry-control protocol. This design explicitly isolates inertial mass from quantum measurement. We establish a required statistical integration target of N10^6 coincident counts to bound the phenomenological coupling coefficient above standard optical noise floors.

DOI
10.5281/zenodo.20178634

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Standard decoherence models predict that the degradation of optical fringe visibility is independent of the inertial mass of surrounding macroscopic bodies, provided environmental and information-theoretic couplings are held constant. We propose an experimental protocol to test for an unmodeled, mass-dependent decoherence channel. By parameterizing a hypothesized mass-coupled attenuation term, we derive a 1/r exponential visibility decay model resulting from the path integration of an inverse-square potential. We outline a modified Mach-Zehnder interferometer utilizing a decoupled 10kgTungsten mass placed near a single optical arm, including a strict symmetry-control protocol. This design explicitly isolates inertial mass from quantum measurement. We establish a required statistical integration target of N10^6 coincident counts to bound the phenomenological coupling coefficient above standard optical noise floors.
Abstract The relation between interference visibility and path distinguishability is a core pillar of quantum complementarity and decoherence theory. In standard quantum mechanics, all coherence decay in interferometric systems is attributed exclusively to path information leakage, which establishes a one-to-one relation between environmental distinguishability and fringe visibility. However, a fundamental question remains experimentally untested: whether discrete quantized energy exchange between light and matter can degrade quantum coherence independently of path distinguishability. In this work, we propose a high-precision cavity-QED experiment based on a Mach–Zehnder interferometer to decouple interaction modality from path information. A single trapped Rb atom inside an optical cavity is placed in one interferometer arm, enabling fully switchable light–matter interaction regimes: resonant discrete energy exchange and far-detuned continuous dispersive interaction. To eliminate systematic artifacts, we employ environmental state tomography to rigorously equalize the path distinguishability in both operational regimes. Furthermore, we systematically compensate all linear dynamical differences between resonant and dispersive cavity responses, including group delay, spectral distortion, and temporal mode mismatch. With all standard decoherence and dynamical contributions precisely calibrated, standard quantum mechanics predicts identical interference visibility for resonant and dispersive interactions. In contrast, a physically motivated alternative conjecture suggests that discrete energy exchange can induce intrinsic coherence suppression even at fixed path distinguishability. The two scenarios yield experimentally distinguishable visibility differences. Our scheme utilizes mature single-atom cavity quantum optics techniques without low-temperature superconducting devices, providing a robust and accessible platform to resolve this long-standing open question in quantum interferometry. The complete optical layout, timing sequence, tomography calibration, statistical criteria, and error suppression strategies are presented. This experiment offers a decisive experimental benchmark for the fundamental relationship between light–matter interaction type and quantum coherence.
Abstract The conceptual tension between quantum nonlocality and relativistic causality motivates scenarios in which Lorentz invariance is an emergent rather than fundamental symmetry. Within such scenarios, optical propagation may retain a weak dependence on properties of an underlying quantum substrate, including the coherence of nearby quantum systems. We introduce a phenomenological model in which optical propagation depends weakly on the quantum coherence of a nearby ancillary control system. To test this hypothesis, we propose a quantum-controlled Mach–Zehnder interferometric (MZI) protocol comparing coherent and incoherent ancillary states having identical populations. Standard quantum mechanics predicts identical photon-counting statistics in both configurations, whereas the proposed phenomenological model predicts additional stochastic phase fluctuations leading to an excess phase-noise variance in the coherent-control configuration. We derive the corresponding statistical sensitivity, discuss possible implementations based on state-of-the-art fiber MZIs, and estimate illustrative experimental bounds on the coherence–propagation coupling parameter.
We propose a modified single-particle Mach-Zehnder interferometer experiment in which the path length of one arm may change (randomly or systematically) according to the value of an external two-valued variable x, for each passage of a particle through the interferometer. Quantum theory predicts an interference pattern that is independent of the sequence of the values of x. On the other hand, corpuscular models that reproduce the results of quantum optics experiments carried out up to this date show a reduced visibility and a shift of the interference pattern depending on the details of the sequence of the values of x. The key question to be answered in a real laboratory experiment is: Which interference pattern is observed? Despite the general believe that quantum theory might be used to describe all single particle experiments, this is an interesting question to be answered since in the proposed experiment the experimental conditions not only continuously change but they might also have causal effects on the passage of the photons through the interferometer. The proposed experiment can be used to determine to what extent quantum theory provides a description of observed events beyond the usual statistical level.
The employment of path-entangled multiphoton states enables measurement of phase with enhanced precision. It is common practice to demonstrate the unique properties of such quantum states by measuring superresolving oscillations in the coincidence rate of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Similar oscillations, however, have also been demonstrated in various configurations using classical light only; making it unclear what, if any, are the classical limits of this phenomenon. Here we derive a classical bound for the visibility of superresolving oscillations in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. This provides an easy to apply, fundamental test of nonclassicality. We apply this test to experimental multiphoton coincidence measurements obtained using photon number resolving detectors. Mach-Zehnder superresolution is found to be a highly distinctive quantum effect.
We analyze a single-particle Mach-Zehnder interferometer experiment in which the path length of one arm may change (randomly or systematically) according to the value of an external two-valued variable xxx, for each passage of a particle through the interferometer. Quantum theory predicts an interference pattern that is independent of the sequence of the values of xxx. On the other hand, corpuscular models that reproduce the results of quantum optics experiments carried out up to this date show a reduced visibility and a shift of the interference pattern depending on the details of the sequence of the values of xxx. The proposed experiment will show that: (1) it can be described by quantum theory, and thus not by the current corpuscular models, or (2) it cannot be described by quantum theory but can be described by the corpuscular models or variations thereof, or (3) it can neither be described by quantum theory nor by corpuscular models. Therefore, the proposed experiment can be used to determine to what extent quantum theory provides a description of observed events beyond the usual statistical level.
We experimentally demonstrate optical Mach-Zehnder interferometer utilizing displaced Sagnac configuration to enhance its phase stability. The interferometer with footprint of 27×40 cm offers individually accessible paths and shows phase deviation less than 0.4° during a 250 s long measurement. The phase drift, evaluated by means of Allan deviation, stays below 3° or 7 nm for 1.5 h without any active stabilization. The polarization insensitive design is verified by measuring interference visibility as a function of input polarization. For both interferometer's output ports and all tested polarization states the visibility stays above 93%. The discrepancy in visibility for horizontal and vertical polarization about 3.5% is caused mainly by undesired polarization dependence of splitting ratio of the beam splitter used. The presented interferometer device is suitable for quantum-information and other sensitive applications where active stabilization is complicated and common-mode interferometer is not an option as both the interferometer arms have to be accessible individually.