Undulator Radiation from a Single Electron: A Temporal Double-Slit Experiment
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| Natura: | Preprint |
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2026
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| author | Khan, Shaukat Asai, Yuya Usfoor, Zohair Kaneyasu, Tatsuo Mai, Carsten Miyauchi, Hiroshi Okano, Yasuaki Krishnan, Arjun Radha Salah, Wael Shimada, Miho Vijayan, Vivek Katoh, Masahiro |
| author_facet | Khan, Shaukat Asai, Yuya Usfoor, Zohair Kaneyasu, Tatsuo Mai, Carsten Miyauchi, Hiroshi Okano, Yasuaki Krishnan, Arjun Radha Salah, Wael Shimada, Miho Vijayan, Vivek Katoh, Masahiro |
| contents | Double-slit diffraction studies with photons or massive particles rank among the most beautiful experiments in physics. In particular, measurements at very low intensities demonstrate the particle-wave duality and the coherent superposition of states very clearly. In this paper, low-intensity double-slit experiments in the time domain are presented measuring the spectral distribution of synchrotron light from a single relativistic electron in a storage ring. In two consecutive radiation sources (so-called undulators) with a magnetic detour between them, electrons emit two temporally separated light pulses leading to a spectrum with interference fringes, very much like the angular distribution of light behind two spatially separated slits. Independent experiments at two synchrotron light sources (DELTA in Germany and UVSOR-III in Japan) directly demonstrate that the spectral distribution of accumulated synchrotron light from a single electron is essentially the same as the spectrum from a beam of many electrons. While the latter is usually explained as interference between electromagnetic waves from the two undulators, the single-electron experiments demonstrate that coherent photon emission is delocalized over several meters and the accumulated spectral distribution exhibits a deterministic interference pattern at small wavelengths. The experiments presented here were conducted with near-ultraviolet light to avoid an elaborate in-vacuum setup, but the very wide spectral range of synchrotron radiation, from infrared light to X-rays, enables access to regimes not available in laser-based quantum optics experiments. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_18244 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Undulator Radiation from a Single Electron: A Temporal Double-Slit Experiment Khan, Shaukat Asai, Yuya Usfoor, Zohair Kaneyasu, Tatsuo Mai, Carsten Miyauchi, Hiroshi Okano, Yasuaki Krishnan, Arjun Radha Salah, Wael Shimada, Miho Vijayan, Vivek Katoh, Masahiro Accelerator Physics Double-slit diffraction studies with photons or massive particles rank among the most beautiful experiments in physics. In particular, measurements at very low intensities demonstrate the particle-wave duality and the coherent superposition of states very clearly. In this paper, low-intensity double-slit experiments in the time domain are presented measuring the spectral distribution of synchrotron light from a single relativistic electron in a storage ring. In two consecutive radiation sources (so-called undulators) with a magnetic detour between them, electrons emit two temporally separated light pulses leading to a spectrum with interference fringes, very much like the angular distribution of light behind two spatially separated slits. Independent experiments at two synchrotron light sources (DELTA in Germany and UVSOR-III in Japan) directly demonstrate that the spectral distribution of accumulated synchrotron light from a single electron is essentially the same as the spectrum from a beam of many electrons. While the latter is usually explained as interference between electromagnetic waves from the two undulators, the single-electron experiments demonstrate that coherent photon emission is delocalized over several meters and the accumulated spectral distribution exhibits a deterministic interference pattern at small wavelengths. The experiments presented here were conducted with near-ultraviolet light to avoid an elaborate in-vacuum setup, but the very wide spectral range of synchrotron radiation, from infrared light to X-rays, enables access to regimes not available in laser-based quantum optics experiments. |
| title | Undulator Radiation from a Single Electron: A Temporal Double-Slit Experiment |
| topic | Accelerator Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.18244 |