Hannover 2016 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 51: Quantum Effects: QED I

Q 51.8: Talk

Thursday, March 3, 2016, 12:45–13:00, f442

Exploring quantum interference at x-ray nuclear interfaces — •Jonas Gunst and Adriana Pálffy — Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg

The concept of interference lies at the heart of quantum physics. Already in its beginnings, a number of gedankenexperiments have been proposed to better understand the origin and controllability of interference phenomena. Along with the great success of quantum optics, it has been shown that coherent control schemes can be employed to gain and subsequently remove again the which-way information in a double-slit scenario, known as the “quantum eraser” [1].

Here, we propose a quantum eraser setup with x-ray quanta, potentially extending time-energy complementarity tests into the so far unexplored parameter regime of x-ray energies. In the course of nuclear forward scattering (NFS) with synchrotron radiation on ensembles of Mössbauer ⁵⁷Fe nuclei generally more than one hyperfine transition can be driven at once. Since the scattering paths remain unresolved, the interference leads to the so called quantum beat characteristic for the time spectrum of NFS in an external magnetic field [2]. We show that it is possible to mark the individual paths by orthogonal polarizations such that the quantum beat pattern disappears in the time spectrum. Moreover, we put forward how to recover the interference by erasing the which-way information stored in the x-ray polarization.

[1] M. O. Scully et al., Nature 351, 111 (1991).

[2] J. Hannon and G. Trammell, Hyperfine Interact. 123-124, 127 (1999).