Bright and Dark States of Light: The quantum Origin of Classical Interference
Quantum Physics
2025-05-05 v3 Atomic Physics
Optics
Abstract
Classical theory asserts that several electromagnetic waves cannot interact with matter if they interfere destructively to zero, whereas quantum mechanics predicts a nontrivial light-matter dynamics even when the average electric field vanishes. Here we show that in quantum optics classical interference emerges from collective bright and dark states of light, \textit{i.e.}, entangled superpositions of multi-mode photon-number states. This makes it possible to explain wave interference using the particle description of light and the superposition principle for linear systems.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2112.05512,
title = {Bright and Dark States of Light: The quantum Origin of Classical Interference},
author = {Celso J. Villas-Boas and Carlos E. Máximo and Paulo J. Paulino and Romain P. Bachelard and Gerhard Rempe},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2112.05512},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
5 pages, 1 figures