Duality of quantum coherence and path distinguishability

作者：Bera, Manabendra Nath^*; Qureshi, Tabish; Siddiqui, Mohd Asad; Pati, Arun Kumar

来源：Physical Review A, 2015, 92(1): 012118.

DOI：10.1103/PhysRevA.92.012118

• WAVE-PARTICLE DUALITY
• DELAYED-CHOICE EXPERIMENT
• WHICH-WAY INFORMATION
• UNAMBIGUOUS DISCRIMINATION
• SUCCESS PROBABILITY
• FRINGE VISIBILITY
• STATES
• COMPLEMENTARITY
• INTERFEROMETER
• DIFFERENTIATE

We derive a generalized wave-particle duality relation for arbitrary multipath quantum interference phenomena. Beyond the conventional notion of the wave nature of a quantum system, i.e., the interference fringe visibility, we introduce a quantifier as the normalized quantum coherence, recently defined in the framework of quantum information theory. To witness the particle nature, we quantify the path distinguishability or the which-path information based on unambiguous quantum state discrimination. Then, the Bohr complementarity principle for multipath quantum interference can be stated as a duality relation between the quantum coherence and the path distinguishability. For two-path interference, the quantum coherence is identical to the interference fringe visibility, and the relation reduces to the well-known complementarity relation. The duality relation continues to hold in the case where mixedness is introduced due to possible decoherence effects.

• 出版日期2015-7-22