It is shown that, in some cases, the effect of discrete distributions of flux lines in quantum mechanics can be associated with the effect of continuous distributions of magnetic fields with special symmetries. In particular, flux lines with an arbitrary value of magnetic flux can be used to create energetic barriers, which can be used to confine quantum systems in specially designed configurations. This generalizes a previous work where such energy barriers arose from flux lines with half-integer fluxons. Furthermore, it is shown how the Landau levels can be obtained from a two-dimensional grid of flux lines. These results suggest that the classical magnetic force can be seen as emerging entirely from the Aharonov-Bohm effect. Finally, the basic elements of a semi-classical theory that models the emergence of classical magnetic forces from fields with special symmetries are introduced.
The Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect is a purely quantum mechanical effect. The original (classified as Type-I) AB-phase shift exists in experimental conditions where the electromagnetic fields and forces are zero. It is the absence of forces that makes the AB-effect entirely quantum mechanical. Although the AB-phase shift has been demonstrated unambiguously, the absence of forces in Type-I AB-effects has never been shown. Here, we report the observation of the absence of time delays associated with forces of the magnitude needed to explain the AB-phase shift for a macroscopic system.
The independence of the Aharonov-Bohm phase shift on particle velocity is one of its defining properties. The classical counterpart to this dispersionless behavior is the absence of forces along the direction of motion of the particle. A reevaluation of the experimental demonstration that forces are absent in the AB physical system is given, including previously unpublished data. It is shown that the debate on the presence or absence of forces is not settled, and an experiment searching for dispersionless forces is proposed.
In this work, we show an application of the de Broglie-Bohm Quantum Theory of Motion (QTM) as a powerful tool for evaluating Bohm's quantum force in the scattering process of a Gaussian wavepacket by a classical Eckart potential. Our results show that in the absence of a classical potential, the system experiences quantum effects arising from an effective force, intrinsically related to the existence of the wavepacket itself. In contrast, in the scattering by the classical potential, it experiences a quantum force effect even in the absence of any classical force, reinforcing the fact that pot…
It is shown, under mild assumptions, that classical degrees of freedom dynamically coupled to quantum ones do not inherit their quantum fluctuations. It is further shown that, if the assumptions are strengthen by imposing the existence of a canonical structure, only purely classical or purely quantum dynamics are allowed.
Quantum nonlocality is an inherently non-classical feature of quantum mechanics and manifests itself through violation of Bell inequalities for nonlocal games. We show that in a fairly general setting, a simple extension of a nonlocal game can certify instead the absence of quantum nonlocality. Through contraposition, our result implies that a super-classical performance for such a game ensures that a player's output is unpredictable to the other player. Previously such output unpredictability was known with respect to a third party.
We show the additional spin dependent classical force due to the rotation of an electron spin's rest frame is essential to derive a spin-Faraday law by using an analogy with the usual Faraday law. The contribution of the additional spin dependent force to the spin-Faraday law is the same as that of the spin geometric phase. With this observations, Faraday law is generalized to include both the usual Faraday and the spin-Faraday laws in a unified manner.
We solve the optimal quantum limit of probing a classical force exactly by a damped oscillator initially prepared in the factorized squeezed state. The memory effects of the thermal bath on the oscillator evolution are investigated. We show that the optimal force sensitivity obtained by the quantum estimation theory approaches to zero for the non-Markovian bath, whereas approaches to a finite non-zero value for the Markovian bath as the energy of the damped oscillator goes to infinity.
Decades ago, Aharonov and Bohm showed that electrons are affected by electromagnetic potentials in the absence of forces due to fields. Zeilinger's theorem describes this absence of classical force in quantum terms as the "dispersionless" nature of the Aharonov-Bohm effect. Shelankov predicted the presence of a quantum "force" for the same Aharonov-Bohm physical system as elucidated by Berry. Here, we report an experiment designed to test Shelankov's prediction and we provide a theoretical analysis that is intended to elucidate the relation between Shelankov's prediction and Zeilinger's theore…
Lorentz invariance requires local interactions, with force laws such as the Coulomb interaction arising via virtual exchange of force carriers such as photons. Many have considered the possibility that, at long distances or large mass scales, this process changes in some way to lead to classical behavior. Here we hypothesize that classical behavior could be due to an inability of some force carriers to convey entanglement, a characteristic measure of nonlocal, quantum behavior. We then prove that there exists a local test that allows one to verify entanglement generation, falsifying our hypoth…
Precise measurements of tiny forces and displacements play an important role in science and technology. The precision of recent experiments, while beginning to reach the limits imposed by quantum mechanics, is necessarily spoiled by the unavoidable influence of noise. Here we obtain a quantum limit for the uncertainty in the estimation of a resonant classical force acting on a noisy quantum-mechanical oscillator. We determine the best initial state of the oscillator and the best measurement procedure, thus getting a rigorous and useful benchmark for experiments aiming to detect extremely small…
We consider a solvable model of a laser-interferometer measuring a weak classical force. The model takes into account dissipation of the energy by transfer to the environment at zero temperature. The sensitivity (the signal-to-noise ratio) of the device is defined as the corresponding ratio between the mean value and the variance of a certain observable. We analyze the dependence of the sensitivity upon the duration of the measurement and the photon number. For parameters typical for the LIGO project, we discuss numerical estimates.
We show how a large family of master equations, describing quantum Brownian motion of a harmonic oscillator with translationally invariant damping, can be derived within a phenomenological approach, based on the assumption that an environment can be simulated by two classical stochastic forces. This family is determined by three time-dependent correlation functions (besides the frequency and damping coefficients), and it includes as special cases the known master equations, whose dissipative part is bilinear with respect to the operators of coordinate and momentum.
We apply the strategy of the back action evading measurement of a quadrature component of mechanical motion of a test mass to detection of a classical force acting on the mass (Science, 209, (1980) 547) and study both classical and quantum limitations of the technique. We are considering a resonant displacement transducer interrogated with a dichromatic optical pump as a model system in this study. The transducer is represented by a Fabry Perot cavity with a totally reflecting movable end mirror the resonant force of interest acts upon. The cavity is pumped with two coherent optical carriers e…
We show that the Schrödinger equation for the quantum harmonic oscillator can be derived as an approximation to the Newtonian mechanics of a classical harmonic oscillator subject to a random force for time intervals $O( m / \hbar)$, when $\hbar / m \ll 1$. Conversely, every solution to the Schrödinger equation, including all the superposition states, arises this way. In other words, the quantum harmonic oscillator is approximately nothing but the classical harmonic oscillator, with the same mass and frequency as the quantum harmonic oscillator, subject to a random force. We generalize the resu…
We give a partial answer to the question whether the Schrodinger equation can be derived from the Newtonian mechanics of a particle in a potential subject to a random force. We show that the fluctuations around the classical motion of a one dimensional harmonic oscillator subject to a random force can be described by the Schrodinger equation for a period of time depending on the frequency and the energy of the oscillator. We achieve this by deriving the postulates of Nelson's stochastic formulation of quantum mechanics for a random force depending on a small parameter. We show that the same re…
We describe a one-atom microlaser involving Poissonian input of atoms with a fixed flight time through an optical resonator. The influence of the cavity reservoir during the interactions of successive individual atoms with the cavity field is included in the analysis. The atomic decay is also considered as it is nonnegligible in the optical regime. During the random intervals of absence of any atom in the cavity, the field evolves under its own dynamics. We discuss the steady-state characteristics of the cavity field. Away from laser threshold, the field can be nonclassical in nature.
The experimental demonstration of the modification of the Casimir force between a gold coated sphere and a single-crystal Si membrane by light pulses is performed. The specially designed and fabricated Si membrane was irradiated with 514 nm laser pulses of 5 ms width in high vacuum leading to a change of the charge-carrier density. The difference in the Casimir force in the presence and in the absence of laser radiation was measured by means of an atomic force microscope as a function of separation at different powers of the absorbed light. The total experimental error of the measured force di…
Observable Estimation in the Absence of Classical Verification
IBM Research（IBM 研究院）；Algorithmiq S.r.l.（Algorithmiq 公司）；Padua Quantum Technologies Research Center, Università degli Studi di Padova（帕多瓦大学帕多瓦量子技术中心）；INFN, Sezione di Padova（意大利国家核物理研究所帕多瓦分部）；School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin（都柏林三一学院物理学院）
We propose an interferometry technique, by using electromagnetically induced transparency phenomena, for measuring classical force. The classical force is estimated by measuring the phase at the output of the interferometer. The proposed measurement mechanism satisfies quantum non-demolition measurement conditions leading to back-action evasion. We further derive the sufficient condition under which the thermal noise in the interferometer is negligible. With no back-action noise and no thermal noise, the sensitivity of this technique is limited by shot noise only.
A new classical electromagnetic analysis is presented suggesting that the Aharonov-Bohm phase shift is overwhelmingly likely to arise from a classical lag effect based upon classical electromagnetic forces. The analysis makes use of several aspects of classical electromagnetic theory which are unfamiliar to most physicists, including the Darwin Lagrangian, acceleration-based electric fields, internal electromagnetic momentum in a magnet, and a magnet model involving at least three mutually-interacting particles. Only when the acceleration-based electric forces acting on the passing charge are …
Abraham forces are defined as electromagnetic forces on neutral objects caused by the presence of slow, time-dependent, homogeneous electromagnetic fields. Only a few experimental observations have been reported, and different formulations exist in literature. The ``standard" Abraham force is usually associated with the full derivative $\partial_t(\mathbf{E} \times \mathbf{B})$ of homogeneous electric and magnetic fields. We show that this full derivative is wrong in general, since the classical Maxwell theory contains subtle induced-dipole forces that contribute to the Abraham force, which th…
In the de Broglie - Bohm formulation of quantum mechanics, the electron is stationary in the ground state of the hydrogen atom, because the quantum force exactly cancels the Coulomb attraction of the electron to the proton. In this paper it is shown that classical electrodynamics similarly predicts the Coulomb force can be effectively canceled by part of the magnetic force that occurs between two similar particles each consisting of a point charge moving with circulatory motion at the speed of light. Supposition of such motion is the basis of the {\em Zitterbewegung} interpretation of quantum …
We derive analytic expressions for the classical Casimir-Polder free energy and force for a polarizable (magnetizable) atom (microparticle) interacting with thin films, made of different materials, or graphene. It is shown that for an isolated dielectric film the free energy and force decrease quicker with separation, as compared to the case of atom interacting with a thick plate (semispace). For metallic films some peculiar features depending on the model of a metal used are analyzed. For an atom interacting with graphene we demonstrate that at room temperature the classical regime is achieve…
In this work we address the problem of the quantization of a simple harmonic oscillator that is perturbed by a time dependent force. The approach consists of removing the perturbation by a canonical change of coordinates. Since the quantization procedure uses the classical Hamiltonian formalism as staring point, the change of variables is carried out using canonical transformations, and to transform between the quantized systems the canonical transformation is implemented as a unitary transformation mapping the states of the perturbed and unperturbed system onto each other.
We present a general theoretical framework for the exact treatment of a hybrid system that is composed of a quantum subsystem and a classical subsystem. When the quantum subsystem is dynamically fast and the classical subsystem is slow, a vector potential is generated with a simple canonical transformation. This vector potential, on one hand, gives rise to the familiar Berry phase in the fast quantum dynamics; on the other hand, it yields a Lorentz-like force in the slow classical dynamics. In this way, the pure phase (Berry phase) of a wavefunction is linked to a physical force.
Feynman and Hibbs were the first to variationally determine an effective potential whose associated classical canonical ensemble approximates the exact quantum partition function. We examine the existence of a map between the local potential and an effective classical potential which matches the exact quantum equilibrium density and partition function. The usefulness of such a mapping rests in its ability to readily improve Born-Oppenheimer potentials for use with classical sampling. We show that such a map is unique and must exist. To explore the feasibility of using this result to improve cl…
We show that macroscopic nonintegrable lattices of spins 1/2, which are often considered to be chaotic, do not exhibit the basic property of classical chaotic systems, namely, exponential sensitivity to small perturbations. We compare chaotic lattices of classical spins and nonintegrable lattices of spins 1/2 in terms of their magnetization responses to imperfect reversal of spin dynamics known as Loschmidt echo. In the classical case, magnetization exhibits exponential sensitivity to small perturbations of Loschmidt echoes, which is characterized by twice the value of the largest Lyapunov exp…
Geometrical formulation of classical mechanics with forces that are not necessarily potential-generated is presented. It is shown that a natural geometrical "playground" for a mechanical system of point particles lacking Lagrangian and/or Hamiltonian description is an odd dimensional line element contact bundle. Time evolution is governed by certain canonical two-form $Ω$ (an analog of $dp/\dq-dH/\dt$), which is constructed purely from forces and the metric tensor entering the kinetic energy of the system. Attempt to "dissipative quantization" in terms of the two-form $Ω$ is proposed. The Feyn…
