Testing the postulates of quantum mechanics with coherent states of light and homodyne detection

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Conlon, Lorcan O., Walsh, Angus, Hua, Yuhan, Thearle, Oliver, Vogl, Tobias, Eilenberger, Falk, Lam, Ping Koy, Assad, Syed M.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Conlon, Lorcan O.
Walsh, Angus
Hua, Yuhan
Thearle, Oliver
Vogl, Tobias
Eilenberger, Falk
Lam, Ping Koy
Assad, Syed M.
author_facet Conlon, Lorcan O.
Walsh, Angus
Hua, Yuhan
Thearle, Oliver
Vogl, Tobias
Eilenberger, Falk
Lam, Ping Koy
Assad, Syed M.
contents Quantum mechanics has withstood every experimental test thus far. However, it relies on ad-hoc postulates which require experimental verification. Over the past decade there has been a great deal of research testing these postulates, with numerous tests of Born's rule for determining probabilities and the complex nature of the Hilbert space being carried out. Although these tests are yet to reveal any significant deviation from textbook quantum theory, it remains important to conduct such tests in different configurations and using different quantum states. Here we perform the first such test using coherent states of light in a three-arm interferometer combined with homodyne detection. Our proposed configuration requires additional assumptions, but allows us to use quantum states which exist in a larger Hilbert space compared to previous tests. For testing Born's rule, we find that the third order interference is bounded to be $κ$ = 0.002 $\pm$ 0.004 and for testing whether quantum mechanics is complex or not we find a Peres parameter of F = 1.0000 $\pm$ 0.0003 (F = 1 corresponds to the expected complex quantum mechanics). We also use our experiment to test Glauber's theory of optical coherence.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2308_03446
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Testing the postulates of quantum mechanics with coherent states of light and homodyne detection
Conlon, Lorcan O.
Walsh, Angus
Hua, Yuhan
Thearle, Oliver
Vogl, Tobias
Eilenberger, Falk
Lam, Ping Koy
Assad, Syed M.
Quantum Physics
Quantum mechanics has withstood every experimental test thus far. However, it relies on ad-hoc postulates which require experimental verification. Over the past decade there has been a great deal of research testing these postulates, with numerous tests of Born's rule for determining probabilities and the complex nature of the Hilbert space being carried out. Although these tests are yet to reveal any significant deviation from textbook quantum theory, it remains important to conduct such tests in different configurations and using different quantum states. Here we perform the first such test using coherent states of light in a three-arm interferometer combined with homodyne detection. Our proposed configuration requires additional assumptions, but allows us to use quantum states which exist in a larger Hilbert space compared to previous tests. For testing Born's rule, we find that the third order interference is bounded to be $κ$ = 0.002 $\pm$ 0.004 and for testing whether quantum mechanics is complex or not we find a Peres parameter of F = 1.0000 $\pm$ 0.0003 (F = 1 corresponds to the expected complex quantum mechanics). We also use our experiment to test Glauber's theory of optical coherence.
title Testing the postulates of quantum mechanics with coherent states of light and homodyne detection
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.03446