Related papers: The myth of the photon
Hidden-variable theories effectively solve the measurement problem. However, a serious issue of this route towards a realistic completion of quantum theory is raised by Bell's proof that the resulting theories are nonlocal. A possible…
We present a conditional experiment involving a parametric amplifier and an avalanche photodetector to generate highly nonclassical states of the radiation field. The nonclassicality is robust against amplifier gain, detector efficiency and…
We experimentally demonstrate that a non-classical state prepared in an atomic memory can be efficiently transferred to a single mode of free-propagating light. By retrieving on demand a single excitation from a cold atomic gas, we realize…
We analyze through the expectation value of the energy density the spatial nonlocality of single photons emitted by the spontaneous decay of a Hydrogen atom. By using a minimal coupling between the quantized electromagnetic field and the…
We investigate spontaneous photon emission processes of two-level atoms in parabolic and ellipsoidal cavities thereby taking into account the full multimode scenario. In particular, we calculate the excitation probabilities of the atoms and…
Particle detector models allow to give an operational definition to the particle content of a given quantum state of a field theory. The commonly adopted Unruh-DeWitt type of detector is known to undergo temporary transitions to excited…
We investigate fundamental bounds on the ability to determine photon number distribution and other related quantities from tomographically incomplete measurements with an array of M detectors that can only distinguish the absence or…
Multi-photon-added cat states are constructed by repeatedly applying the creation operator to a cat state. We study in detail their photon-number distribution, $Q$ parameter, squeezing properties, and Wigner function. We show that photon…
An analysis of the energy exchange by photons is presented based on single-photon Gedanken experiments and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Excluding hidden variable properties of a single photon one has to accept that the total photon…
We consider transfer of a highly nonclassical quantum state through an optomechanical system. That is we investigate a protocol consisting of sequential upload, storage and reading out of the quantum state from a mechanical mode of an…
Quantum theory stipulates that if two particles are identical in all physical aspects, the allowed states of the system are either symmetric or antisymmetric with respect to permutations of the particle labels. Experimentally, the symmetry…
While quantum reality can be probed through measurements, the Two-State-Vector formalism (TSVF) reveals a subtler reality prevailing between measurements. Under special pre- and post-selections, odd physical values emerge. This unusual…
We introduce a method for the verification of nonclassical light which is independent of the complex interaction between the generated light and the material of the detectors. This is accomplished by means of a multiplexing arrangement. Its…
The classical electromagnetic field of a spinless point electron is described in a formalism with extended causality by discrete finite point-vector fields with discrete and localized point interactions. These fields are taken as a…
We have reconstructed the quantum state of optical pulses containing single photons using the method of phase-randomized pulsed optical homodyne tomography. The single-photon Fock state |1> was prepared using conditional measurements on…
We propose an optical scheme to generate a superposition of coherent states with enhanced size adopting an interferometric setting at the single-photon level currently available in the laboratory. Our scheme employs a nondegenerate optical…
We develop a scattering theory to investigate the multi-photon transmission in a one-dimensional waveguide in the presence of quantum emitters. It is based on a path integral formalism, uses displacement transformations, and does not…
In a recent contribution, we introduced and applied a detector-independent method to uncover nonclassicality. Here, we extend those techniques and give more details on the performed analysis. We derive a general theory of the…
We formulate the density matrices of a quantum state obtained by first adding multi-photons to and then subtracting multi-photons from any arbitrary state as well as performing the same process in the reverse order. Considering the field to…
Quantum mechanics cements the intimate relationship between the nature of light and its detection. Historically, quantum theories of photodetection have generally fallen into two categories: the first tries to determine what quantum field…