论文标题
干扰可区分的光子
Interfering distinguishable photons
论文作者
论文摘要
量子力学的中心原理之一是，如果有多个导致同一事件的路径，并且无法区分它们，则会发生干扰。通常认为，在系统的准备，进化或测量中区分信息足以破坏干扰。例如，确定粒子在Young的双缝实验中采用哪种裂缝，或在两光子Hong-Ou-mandel效应中使用可区分的光子允许区分导致检测事件的路径，因此在这两种情况下都会消失。对于超过三个独立的量子颗粒而言，准备好的状态的可区分性并不是多粒子干扰消失的足够条件。在这里，我们对在可区分状态下制备的四个光子进行实验证明了这一点，从根本上挑战了多粒子干扰的直觉。
One of the central principles of quantum mechanics is that if there are multiple paths that lead to the same event, and there is no way to distinguish between them, interference occurs. It is usually assumed that distinguishing information in the preparation, evolution or measurement of a system is sufficient to destroy interference. For example, determining which slit a particle takes in Young's double slit experiment or using distinguishable photons in the two-photon Hong-Ou-Mandel effect allow discrimination of the paths leading to detection events, so in both cases interference vanishes. Remarkably for more than three independent quantum particles, distinguishability of the prepared states is not a sufficient condition for multiparticle interference to disappear. Here we experimentally demonstrate this for four photons prepared in pairwise distinguishable states, thus fundamentally challenging intuition of multiparticle interference.
