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Is a multiple excitation of a single atom equivalent to a single excitation of an ensemble of atoms?

Ido Kanter·Aviad Frydman·Assaf Ater
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Abstract

Recent technological advances have enabled to isolate, control and measure the properties of a single atom, leading to the possibility to perform statistics on the behavior of single quantum systems. These experiments have enabled to check a question which was out of reach previously: Is the statistics of a repeatedly excitation of an atom N times equivalent to a single excitation of an ensemble of N atoms? We present a new method to analyze quantum measurements which leads to the postulation that the answer is most probably no. We discuss the merits of the analysis and its conclusion.

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Ido Kanter, Aviad Frydman, Assaf Ater. 2004-05-16. Is a multiple excitation of a single atom equivalent to a single excitation of an ensemble of atoms?. https://doi.org/10.1209/epl%2Fi2004-10441-9

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