English

Multipath wave-particle duality with a path detector in a quantum superposition

Quantum Physics 2021-02-23 v3

Abstract

According to Bohr's principle of complementarity, a quanton can behave either as a wave or a particle, depending on the choice of the experimental setup. Some recent two-path interference experiments have devised methods where one can have a quantum superposition of the two choices, thus indicating that a quanton may be in a superposition of wave and particle nature. These experiments have been of interest from the point of view of Wheeler's delayed-choice experiment. However, it has also been claimed that this experiment can violate complementarity. Here we theoretically analyze a multipath interference experiment that has a which-path detector in a quantum superposition of being present and absent. We show that a tight multipath wave-particle duality relation is respected in all such situations, and complementarity holds well. The apparent violation of complementarity may be due to incorrect evaluation of path distinguishability in such scenarios.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2010.15719,
  title  = {Multipath wave-particle duality with a path detector in a quantum superposition},
  author = {Mohd Asad Siddiqui and Tabish Qureshi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2010.15719},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

6+epsilon pages, 2 figures, published version

R2 v1 2026-06-23T19:45:04.212Z