Collapse of the quantum wavefunction and Welcher-Weg (WW) experiments
Quantum Physics
2012-01-27 v1
Abstract
The 'collapse' of the wave function in a general measuring process is analyzed by a pure quantum mechanical (QM) approach. The problem of the delayed choice and Welcher-Weg (WW) experiments is analyzed for Mach-Zehnder (MZ) interferometer. The WW effect is related to complementarity principle and orthogonality of wavefunctions although it produces small momentum changes between the electromagnetic (EM) field and the beam-splitters (BS's). For QM states for which we have a superposition of states and interference effects there is no reality before measurement, but by excluding such effects the system gets a real meaning already before measurement.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1201.5461,
title = {Collapse of the quantum wavefunction and Welcher-Weg (WW) experiments},
author = {Y. Ben-Aryeh},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1201.5461},
year = {2012}
}
Comments
13 pages