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Register a new userWheelers delayed-choice thought experiment: Experimental realization and theoretical analysis
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Authors
Vincent Jacques
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Wheeler has strikingly illustrated the wave-particle duality by the delayed-choice thought experiment, in which the configuration of a 2-path interferometer is chosen after a single-photon light-pulsed has entered it. We present a quantitative theoretical analysis of an experimental realization of Wheelers proposal.
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Nowadays the most intriguing features of wave particle complementarity of single photon is exemplified by the famous Wheelers delayed choice experiment in linear optics, nuclear magnetic resonance and integrated photonic device systems. Studying the wave particle behavior in light and matter interaction at single photon level is challenging and interesting, which gives how single photons complement in light and matter interaction. Here, we demonstrate a Wheelers delayed choice experiment in an interface of light and atomic memory, in which the cold atomic memory makes the heralded single photon divided into a superposition of atomic collective excitation and leaked pulse, thus acting as memory beam splitters. We observe the morphing behavior between particle and wave of a heralded single photon by changing the relative proportion of quantum random number generator, the second memory efficiency, and the relative storage time of two memories. The reported results exhibit the complementarity behavior of single photon under the interface of light atom interaction.
Wave-particle duality constitutes one of the most intriguing features in quantum physics. A well-known gedanken experiment that provides evidence for this is the Wheelers delayed-choice experiment based on a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Many differe
Complementarity, that is the ability of a quantum object to behave either as a particle or as a wave, is one of the most intriguing features of quantum mechanics. An exemplary Gedanken experiment, emphasizing such a measurement-dependent nature, was suggested by Wheeler using single photons. The subtleness of the idea lies in the fact that the output beam-splitter of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer is put in or removed after a photon has already entered the interferometer, thus performing a delayed test of the wave-particle complementary behavior. Recently, it was proposed that using a quantum analogue of the output beam-splitter would permit carrying out this type of test after the detection of the photon and observing wave-particle superposition. In this paper we describe an experimental demonstration of these predictions using another extraordinary property of quantum systems, entanglement. We use a pair of polarization entangled photons composed of one photon whose nature (wave or particle) is tested, and of a corroborative photon that allows determining which one, or both, of these two aspects is being tested. This corroborative photon infers the presence or absence of the beam-splitter and until it is measured, the beam-splitter is in a superposition of these two states, making it a quantum beam-splitter. When the quantum beam-splitter is in the state present or absent, the interferometer reveals the wave or particle nature of the test photon, respectively. Furthermore, by manipulating the corroborative photon, we can continuously morph, via entanglement, the test photon from wave to particle behavior even after it was detected. This result underlines the fact that a simple vision of light as a classical wave or a particle is inadequate.
Wheelers delayed-choice experiment investigates the indeterminacy of wave-particle duality and the role played by the measurement apparatus in quantum theory. Due to the inconsistency with classical physics, it has been generally believed that it is not possible to reproduce the delayed-choice experiment using a hidden variable theory. Recently, it was shown that this assumption was incorrect, and in fact Wheelers delayed-choice experiment can be explained by a causal two dimensional hidden-variable theory [R. Chaves, G. B. Lemos, and J. Pienaar, Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 190401 (2018)]. Here, we carry out an experiment of a device-independent delayed-choice experiment using photon states that are space-like separated, and demonstrate a loophole-free version of the delayed-choice protocol that is consistent with quantum theory but inconsistent with any causal two-dimensional hidden variable theory. This salvages Wheelers thought experiment and shows that causality can be used to test quantum theory in a complementary way to the Bell and Leggett-Garg tests.
Many paradoxes of quantum mechanics come from the fact that a quantum system can possess different features at the same time, such as in wave-particle duality or quantum superposition. In recent delayed-choice experiments, a quantum mechanical system can be observed to manifest one feature such as the wave or particle nature, depending on the final measurement setup, which is chosen after the system itself has already entered the measuring device; hence its behaviour is not predetermined. Here, we adapt this paradigmatic scheme to multi-dimensional quantum walks. In our experiment, the way in which a photon interferes with itself in a strongly non-trivial pattern depends on its polarisation, that is determined after the photon has already been detected. Multi-dimensional quantum walks are a very powerful tool for simulating the behaviour of complex quantum systems, due to their versatility. This is the first experiment realising a multi-dimensional quantum walk with a single-photon source and we present also the first experimental simulation of the Grover walk, a model that can be used to implement the Grover quantum search algorithm.
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