English

A self-interfering clock as a "which path" witness

Quantum Physics 2015-10-28 v1

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate a new interferometry paradigm: a self-interfering clock. We split a clock into two spatially separated wave packets, and observe an interference pattern with a stable phase showing that the splitting was coherent, i.e., the clock was in two places simultaneously. We then make the clock wave packets "tick" at different rates to simulate a proper time lag. The entanglement between the clock's time and its path yields "which path" information, which affects the visibility of the clock's self-interference. By contrast, in standard interferometry, time cannot yield "which path" information. As a clock we use an atom prepared in a superposition of two spin states. This first proof-of-principle experiment may have far-reaching implications for the study of time and general relativity and their impact on fundamental quantum effects such as decoherence and wave packet collapse.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1505.05765,
  title  = {A self-interfering clock as a "which path" witness},
  author = {Yair Margalit and Zhifan Zhou and Shimon Machluf and Daniel Rohrlich and Yonathan Japha and Ron Folman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1505.05765},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

22 pages, 8 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-22T09:38:50.660Z