Related papers: Refraction in spacetime
The phenomenon of wave packet diffraction in space and time is described. It consists in a diffraction pattern whose spatial location progresses with time. The pattern is produced by wave packet quantum scattering off an attractive or…
In the recent years, mater-wave interferometry has attracted growing attention due to its unique suitability for high-precision measurements and study of fundamental aspects of quantum theory. Diffraction and interference of matter waves…
Diffraction in time (DIT) is a fundamental phenomenon in quantum dynamics due to time-dependent obstacles and slits. It is formally analogous to diffraction of light, and is expected to play an increasing role to design coherent matter wave…
A simple formula for the scattering of wave packets from a square well at long times is derived. The expression shows that the phenomenon of wave packet diffraction in space and time exists in three dimensions also. An experiment for the…
Refraction at the interface between two materials is fundamental to the interaction of light with photonic devices and to the propagation of light through the atmosphere at large. Underpinning the traditional rules for the refraction of an…
Time-reflection occurs when a wave is propagating in a medium undergoing a large and abrupt change in its properties: the original wave splits into a time-refracted wave and a time-reflected wave, each displaying different features. The…
Diffraction in time manifests itself as the appearance of probability-density fringes when a matter wave passes through an opaque screen with abrupt temporal variations of transmission properties. Here we analytically describe the…
The mathematical similarities between non-relativistic wavefunction propagation in quantum mechanics and image propagation in scalar diffraction theory are used to develop a novel understanding of time and paths through spacetime as a…
The Talbot effect, epitomized by periodic revivals of a freely evolving periodic field structure, has been observed with waves of diverse physical nature in space and separately in time, whereby diffraction underlies the former and…
Time reflection and refraction are temporal analogies of the spatial boundary effects derived from Fermat's principle. They occur when classical waves strike a time boundary where an abrupt change in the properties of the medium is…
When a stationary reflecting wall acting as a perfect mirror for an atomic beam with well defined incident velocity is suddenly removed, the density profile develops during the time evolution an oscillatory pattern known as diffraction in…
Negative refraction is a peculiar wave propagation phenomenon that occurs when a wave crosses a boundary between a regular medium and a medium with both constitutive parameters negative at the given frequency. The phase and group velocities…
In quantum mechanics the time dimension is treated as a parameter, while the three space dimensions are treated as observables. This assumption is both untested and inconsistent with relativity. From dimensional analysis, we expect quantum…
The diffraction of electromagnetic waves by screens (apertures in screens) with time-varying dimensions is studied. The generalized vector Kirchhoff's representation for this case is obtained. It is also shown that with accuracy up to the…
In classical mechanics and electromagnetism, interference occurs when two or more waves overlap at the same point in spacetime. However, the advent of quantum electrodynamics (QED) and its remarkable success in describing light-matter…
Advances in micro-technology of the last years have made it possible to carry optics textbooks experiments over to atomic and molecular beams, such as diffraction by a double slit or transmission grating. The usual wave-optical approach…
We present one- and two-photon diffraction and interference experiments involving parametric down-converted photon pairs. By controlling the divergence of the pump beam in parametric down-conversion, the diffraction-interference pattern…
Wave packet revivals and fractional revivals are striking quantum interference phenomena that can occur under suitable conditions in a system with a nonlinear spectrum. In the framework of a specific model (the propagation of an initially…
Interference is the mechanism through which waves can be structured into the most fascinating patterns. While for sensing, imaging, trapping, or in fundamental investigations, structured waves play nowadays an important role and are…
We demonstrate one- and two-photon diffraction and interference experiments utilizing parametric down-converted photon pairs (biphotons) and a transmission grating. With two-photon detection, the biphoton exhibits a diffraction-interference…