München 2004 – scientific programme

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Q: Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 36: Poster Quanteneffekte

Q 36.10: Poster

Thursday, March 25, 2004, 14:00–16:00, Schellingstr. 3

Laser-based approach to measuring quantum arrival times — •Dirk Seidel and Gerhard C. Hegerfeldt — Tammannstrasse 1, 37077 Göttingen, Germany

We investigate a new operational approach to measuring the quantum arrival-time distribution of a spread-out particle in a spatial region. The model bases on illuminating the region with a laser and detecting the first fluorescence photon produced by the excitation of the atom and subsequent decay. The resulting temporal distribution is explicitly calculated for the one-dimensional case. We show that by means of a deconvolution one obtains the well known quantum mechanical probability flux [1], whereas by a normalization of the corresponding temporal operator function the axiomatic arrival-time distribution of Kijowski is recovered [2].

[1] J.A. Damborenea, I.L. Egusquiza, G.C. Hegerfeldt, J.G. Muga, Phys. Rev. A 66, 052104 (2002)

[2] G.C. Hegerfeldt, D. Seidel, J.G. Muga, Phys. Rev. A 68, 022111 (2003)