"Quantum Interferometry in Phase Space" is primarily concerned with quantum-mechanical distribution functions and their applications in quantum optics and neutron interferometry. In the first part of the book, the author describes the phase-space representation of quantum optical phenomena such as coherent and squeezed states. Applications to interferometry, e.g. in beam splitters and fiber networks, are also presented. In the second part of the book, the theoretical formalism is applied to neutron interferometry, including the dynamical theory of diffraction, coherence properties of superposed beams, and dephasing effects.
Quantum Optics in Phase Space provides a concise introduction to the rapidly moving field of quantum optics from the point of view of phase space. Modern in style and didactically skillful, Quantum Optics in Phase Space prepares students for their own research by presenting detailed derivations, many illustrations and a large set of workable problems at the end of each chapter. Often, the theoretical treatments are accompanied by the corresponding experiments. An exhaustive list of references provides a guide to the literature. Quantum Optics in Phase Space also serves advanced researchers as a comprehensive reference book. Starting with an extensive review of the experiments that define quantum optics and a brief summary of the foundations of quantum mechanics the author Wolfgang P. Schleich illustrates the properties of quantum states with the help of the Wigner phase space distribution function. His description of waves ala WKB connects semi-classical phase space with the Berry phase. These semi-classical techniques provide deeper insight into the timely topics of wave packet dynamics, fractional revivals and the Talbot effect. Whereas the first half of the book deals with mechanical oscillators such as ions in a trap or atoms in a standing wave the second half addresses problems where the quantization of the radiation field is of importance. Such topics extensively discussed include optical interferometry, the atom-field interaction, quantum state preparation and measurement, entanglement, decoherence, the one-atom maser and atom optics in quantized light fields. Quantum Optics in Phase Space presents the subject of quantum optics as transparently as possible. Giving wide-ranging references, it enables students to study and solve problems with modern scientific literature. The result is a remarkably concise yet comprehensive and accessible text- and reference book - an inspiring source of information and insight for students, teachers and researchers alike.
Quantum Optics in Phase Space provides a concise introduction to the rapidly moving field of quantum optics from the point of view of phase space. Modern in style and didactically skillful, Quantum Optics in Phase Space prepares students for their own research by presenting detailed derivations, many illustrations and a large set of workable problems at the end of each chapter. Often, the theoretical treatments are accompanied by the corresponding experiments. An exhaustive list of references provides a guide to the literature. Quantum Optics in Phase Space also serves advanced researchers as a comprehensive reference book. Starting with an extensive review of the experiments that define quantum optics and a brief summary of the foundations of quantum mechanics the author Wolfgang P. Schleich illustrates the properties of quantum states with the help of the Wigner phase space distribution function. His description of waves ala WKB connects semi-classical phase space with the Berry phase. These semi-classical techniques provide deeper insight into the timely topics of wave packet dynamics, fractional revivals and the Talbot effect. Whereas the first half of the book deals with mechanical oscillators such as ions in a trap or atoms in a standing wave the second half addresses problems where the quantization of the radiation field is of importance. Such topics extensively discussed include optical interferometry, the atom-field interaction, quantum state preparation and measurement, entanglement, decoherence, the one-atom maser and atom optics in quantized light fields. Quantum Optics in Phase Space presents the subject of quantum optics as transparently as possible. Giving wide-ranging references, it enables students to study and solve problems with modern scientific literature. The result is a remarkably concise yet comprehensive and accessible text- and reference book - an inspiring source of information and insight for students, teachers and researchers alike.
This book contains an up-to-date account of the experimental status of one of the fundamental and intriguing topic of contemporary physics, the one concerned with the concepts of Bohr's complementarity, non-locality and EPR non-separability of quantum objects. Different aspects, both conceptual and technical, of the complex fenomenology involving different quantum particles (neutrons, electrons, photons, atoms) are illustrated with a unifying perpective that enlightens the underlying basic processes. The book includes works by H Rauch (Vienna), S Haroche (Paris), D Greenberger (New York), A Tonomura (Tokyo), L Mandel (Rochester), H Walther (Munich), D Pritchard (MIT), R Chiao (Berkeley), J Franson (Baltimore), G Ghirardi (Trieste) and many others.
This book covers the theory and applications of the Wigner phase space distribution function and its symmetry properties. The book explains why the phase space picture of quantum mechanics is needed, in addition to the conventional Schrdinger or Heisenberg picture. It is shown that the uncertainty relation can be represented more accurately in this picture. In addition, the phase space picture is shown to be the natural representation of quantum mechanics for modern optics and relativistic quantum mechanics of extended objects.
The quantum interference of DeBroglie matter waves is probably one of the most startling and fundamental aspect of quantum mechanics. It continues to tax our imaginations and leads us to new experimental windows on nature. Quantum interference phenomena are vividly displayed in the wide assembly of neutron interferometry experiments, which have been carried out since the first demonstration of a perfect silicon crystal interferometer in 1974. Since the neutron experiences all four fundamental forces of nature (strong, weak, electromagnetic, and gravitational), interferometry with neutrons provides a fertile testing ground for theory and precision measurements. Many Gedanken experiments of quantum mechanics have become real due to neutron interferometry. This book provides the reader with a detailed account of neutron interferometry experiments. The basic ideas and experiments related to coherence properties of matter waves and various post-selection criteria, gravitationally induced phase shifts, Berry's geometrical phase, spinor symmetry and spin superposition, Aharonov-Bohm topological interference effects, and the neutron version of the Sagnac effect are presented in a self-contained and pedagogical way. Interferometry with perfect crystals, artificial lattices, and spin-echo systems are topics of this book. It includes the theoretical motivations as well as connections to other areas of experimental physics, such as quantum optics, nuclear physics, gravitation, and atom interferometry. The book is written in a style that will be suitable at the beginning graduate level, and will excite many students and researchers in neutron physics, quantum optics, and atomic physics. Lecturers teaching courses in modern physics and quantum mechanics will find a number of interesting and historic experiments they may want to include in their lectures.
One century after the discovery of the quanta and their basic properties, the interdisciplinary science of ´Quantum Interferometry´ retains its original role of being the crossing road between theoretical analysis and interpretation, physics and philosophy, settlement of principles and the prospect for new endeavours. In recent decades the technological achievements have allowed the realization of many earlier gedanken experiments. This has cleared up many issues of previous debate on the foundations by opening, at the same time, new fields of investigation on still subtler aspects of the theory. Furthermore, this evolution has stimulated the birth of new important research of more technological character aimed at the development of practical devices of future general interest, e.g. the new sciences of ´Atom–Optics´, the ´Cavity QED´ in cavities and microcavities, solid–state nanostructures and ´Quantum Computation´. This book collects the texts of lectures given by foremost experts concerning the various modern aspects of ´Quantum Interferometry´ at an Adriatico Conference held, with the same title, in Trieste in March 1996.
This book is devoted to the classical and quantum phases in wave and particle optics from the viewpoint of both theory and applications. Wave and beam light optics are reviewed in considerable detail, featuring optical imaging and holography in linear optics and phase conjugation methods in nonlinear optics. Photon optics is embodied here as quantum optics with the modes treated as quantum harmonic oscillators. The importance of the Wigner function for the phase space description in the context of canonical quantization is respected and the method of quasidistributions related to operator orderings in the second-quantized theory is exposed. The history of the quantum phase problem, characterized by renewed interest in the solution to the problem, is included and brought up to date. Approaches based on exponential phase operators, discrete phase states, the enlargement of the Hilbert space of the harmonic oscillator leading to the phase representations and distributions, together with solutions motivated by the quasidistributions, are introduced. The operational approach to the quantum phase is contrasted with the previous formalisms. The results of the study of the coherent states and the ordinary squeezed states from the viewpoint of the quantum phase and those of the analysis of the quantum statistics of phase-related special states of the light field are provided. The quantum phase is also treated with respect to quantum interferometry, particle interferometry, nonlinear optical processes, and quantum nondemolition measurements.The book will prove indispensable to research workers in general optics, quantum optics and electronics, optoelectronics, and nonlinear optics, as well as to students of physics, optics, optoelectronics, photonics, and optical engineering.
