pith. sign in

arxiv: 1605.02849 · v2 · pith:IYGXNEWZnew · submitted 2016-05-10 · 🪐 quant-ph

Wave-Particle Duality in N-Path Interference

classification 🪐 quant-ph
keywords mathcalrelationinterferencedualitymeasurewavebaganbohr
0
0 comments X
read the original abstract

Bohr's principle of complementarity, in the context of a two-slit interference experiment, is understood as the quantitative measures of wave and particle natures following a duality relation ${\mathcal D}^2+{\mathcal V}^2 \le 1$. Here ${\mathcal D}$ is a measure of distinguishability of the two paths, and ${\mathcal V}$ is the visibility of interference. It is shown that such a relation can be formulated for $N-$slit or $N-$path interference too, with the proviso that the wave nature is characterized by a measure of {\em coherence} (${\mathcal C}$). This new relation, ${\mathcal D}^2+{\mathcal C}^2 \le 1$ is shown to be tight, and reduces to the known duality relation for the case $N=2$. A recently introduced similar relation (Bagan et al., 2016) is shown to be inadequate for the purpose.

This paper has not been read by Pith yet.

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.