Past of a quantum particle revisited

• المؤلفون الرئيسيون: Englert, Berthold-Georg, Horia, Kelvin, Dai, Jibo, Len, Yink Loong, Ng, Hui Khoon
• مؤلفون آخرون: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
• التنسيق: مقال
• اللغة: English
• منشور في: 2018
• الموضوعات: Quantum Mechanical; Particle Beams
• الوصول للمادة أونلاين: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/82915; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/45036
• المؤسسة: Nanyang Technological University

We analyze Vaidman's three-path interferometer with weak path marking [L. Vaidman, Phys. Rev. A 87, 052104 (2013)] and find that common sense yields correct statements about the particle's path through the interferometer. This disagrees with the original claim that the particles have discontinuous trajectories at odds with common sense. In our analysis, “the particle's path” has operational meaning as acquired by a path-discriminating measurement. For a quantum-mechanical experimental demonstration of the case, one should perform a single-photon version of the experiment by Danan et al. [A. Danan, D. Farfurnik, S. Bar-Ad, and L. Vaidman, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 240402 (2013)] with unambiguous path discrimination. We present a detailed proposal for such an experiment.