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arXiv · 1410.8454

Knowing "where the photons have been"

Karol Bartkiewicz·Antonín Černoch·Dalibor Javůrek·Karel Lemr·Jan Soubusta·Jiří Svozilík
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Abstract

Linear-optical interferometers play a key role in designing circuits for quantum information processing and quantum communications. Even though nested Mach-Zehnder interferometers appear easy to describe, there are occasions when they provide unintuitive results. This paper explains the results of a highly discussed experiment performed by Danan et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 240402 (2013)] using a standard approach. We provide a simple and intuitive one-state vector formalism capable of interpreting their experiment. Additionally, we cross-checked our model with a classical-physics based approach and found that both models are in complete agreement. We argue that the quantity used in the mentioned experiment is not a suitable which-path witness producing seemingly contra-intuitive results. To circumvent this issue, we establish a more reliable which-path witness and show that it yields well expected outcomes of the experiment.

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Karol Bartkiewicz, Antonín Černoch, Dalibor Javůrek, Karel Lemr, Jan Soubusta, Jiří Svozilík. 2014-11-18. Knowing "where the photons have been". https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.91.012103

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