In a recent, modified double-pinhole diffraction experiment the existence of an interference pattern was established indirectly along with a near-perfect imaging of the double pinhole. Our theoretical analysis shows that the experiment constitutes a preparation of a quantum state that is, to a good approximation, a joint eigenstate of commuting functions of position and momentum. Gaining information about the momentum distribution by means of the particular experimental setup is thus possible with negligible impact on the position distribution. Furthermore, we construct explicitly a class of states simultaneously localised on periodic sets in position and momentum space, which are therefore eigenstates of the observables being measured jointly (to a good approximation) in multi-slit interferometry. Finally, we show that with an appropriate change of settings the experiment demonstrates the mutual disturbance of position and momentum measurements.
We cast diffraction-based interferometry in the framework of post-selected unitary description towards enabling it as a platform for quantum information processing. We express slit-diffraction as an infinite-dimensional transformation and truncate it to a finite-dimensional transfer matrix by post-selecting modes. Using such a framework with classical fields, a customized double-slit setup is effectively a lossy beam splitter in a post-selected sense. Diffraction optics provides a robust alternative to conventional multi-beam interferometry with scope for miniaturization, and also has applicat…
Estimating multiple parameters simultaneously is of great importance to measurement science and application. For a single parameter, atomic Ramsey interferometry (or equivalently optical Mach-Zehnder interferometry) is capable of providing the precision at the standard quantum limit (SQL) using unentangled probe states as input. In such an interferometer, the first beam splitter represented by unitary transformation $U$ generates a quantum phase sensing superposition state, while the second beam splitter $U^{-1}$ recombines the phase encoded paths to realize interferometric sensing in terms of…
Young's double-slit experiment requires two waves produced simultaneously at two different points in space. In quantum mechanics the waves correspond to a single quantum object, even as complex as a big molecule. An interference is present as long as one cannot tell for sure which slit is chosen by the object. The more we know about the path, the worse the interference. In the paper we show that quantum mechanics allows for a dual version of the phenomenon: self-interference of waves propagating through a single slit but at different moments of time. The effect occurs for time-independent Hami…
In this work we provide theoretical background for the analysis of second-order correlation functions in experiments performed at the soft x-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs). Typically, soft x-ray beamlines at XFELs are equipped by the variable line spacing (VLS) monochromators. We perform examination of the beam propagation through such VLS monochromator taking specially into account the interplay between the finite monochromator resolution and the exit slits width. We then provide general analysis of the second-order correlation intensities in spectral and spatial domains. Finally, we connec…
Elucidating similarities and differences between quantum-optics biphoton interference phenomena and the quantum physics of quasi-one-dimensional double-well optically-trapped ultracold neutral bosonic or fermionic atoms, we show that the analog of the optical biphoton joint-coincidence spectral correlations, studied with massless non-interacting biphotons emanating from EPR-Bell-Bohm single-occupancy sources, corresponds to a distinct contribution in the total second-order momentum correlations of the massive, interacting, and time-evolving ultracold atoms. This single-occupancy contribution c…
