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Quantum wave-particle superposition in a delayed-choice experiment

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 نشر من قبل Xiaosong Ma
 تاريخ النشر 2019
  مجال البحث فيزياء
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Wave-particle duality epitomizes the counterintuitive character of quantum physics. A striking illustration is the quantum delay-choice experiment, which is based on Wheelers classic delayed-choice gedanken experiment, but with the addition of a quantum-controlled device enabling wave-to-particle transitions. Here we realize a quantum delayed-choice experiment in which we control the wave and the particle states of photons and in particular the phase between them, thus directly establishing the created quantum nature of the wave-particle. We generate three-photon entangled states and inject one photon into a Mach--Zehnder interferometer embedded in a 187-m-long two-photon Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer. The third photon is sent 141m away from the interferometers and remotely prepares a two-photon quantum gate according to independent active choices under Einstein locality conditions. We have realized transitions between wave and particle states in both classical and quantum scenarios, and therefore tests of the complementarity principle that go fundamentally beyond earlier implementations.



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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.
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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.
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