We show that if internal and momentum states of an interfering particle are entangled, then by measuring its internal state we may infer both path (corpuscular) and phase (wavelike) information with practically any precision, without the complementarity constraints of which-path detection. This holds also for multipath–multistate configurations, allowing large amounts of information to be stored in a single particle. We further show that highly complex particles (e.g., molecules or macroscopic bodies) subject to fields that couple (entangle) their internal and translational (momentum) states may undergo an irresversible randomization (diffusion), manifest by the disappearance of the interference pattern, as if they are subject to decoherence. Thus, translational-internal entanglement can give rise to anomalies in quantum wavepacket propagation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
D. Bohm Quantum Theory (Prentice-Hall physics series, 1951).
Schmiedmayer J., Ekstrom C.R., Chapman M., Hammond T., Pritchard D.E. (1994). J. Phys. II 4:2029
M. Hillery, L. Mlodinow, and V. Buzek, Phys. Rev. A 71, 062103 (2005).
M. Kolář, T. Opatrný, N. Bar-Gill, and G. Kurizki, LANL e-print archives: quant-ph/0507178, v2, 26 March 2006.
Wootters W.K., Zurek W.H. (1979). Phys. Rev. D 19:473
Greenberger D.M., Yasin A. (1988). Phys. Lett. A 128:391
Jaeger G., Shimony A., Vaidman L. (1995). Phys. Rev. A 51:54–67
Scully M.O., Englert B.-G., Walther H. (1995). Nature 375:367–368
Englert B.-G. (1996). Phys. Rev Lett 77:2154–2157
Dürr S., Nonn T., Rempe G. (1998). Nature 395:33
Mei M., Weitz M. (2001). Phys. Rev. Lett. 86:559
Akulin V.M., Karlov N.V. (1991). Intense Rosonant Interactions in Quantum Electronics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg New York
Scully M.O., Zubairy M.S. (1997). Quantum Optics. University Press, Cambridge
Elitzur A.C., Vaidman L. (1993). Foundations Phys 23:7
L. Hackermoller, S. Uttenthaler, K. Hornberger, E. Reiger, B. Brezger, A. Zeilinger, and M. Arndt, Phys. Rev. Lett 91, 90408 (2003).
Zurek W.H. (2003). Rev. Mod. Phys. 75:715
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kurizki, G., Bar-Gill, N., Clausen, J. et al. Cheating on Complementarity and Interference by Translational – Internal Entanglement. Quantum Inf Process 5, 463–479 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-006-0031-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-006-0031-4