TY - JOUR
T1 - An Improved Experiment to Determine the 'Past of a Particle' in the Nested Mach-Zehnder Interferometer
AU - Ben-Israel, A.
AU - Knips, L.
AU - Dziewior, J.
AU - Meinecke, J.
AU - Danan, A.
AU - Weinfurter, H.
AU - Vaidman, L.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Chinese Physical Society and IOP Publishing Ltd.
PY - 2017/2
Y1 - 2017/2
N2 - We argue that the modification proposed by Li et al. [Chin. Phys. Lett. 32 (2015) 050303 to the experiment of Danan et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 111 (2013) 240402] does not test the past of the photon as characterized by local weak traces. Instead of answering the questions: (i) were the photons in ? (ii) were the photons in ? and (iii) were the photons in ? the proposed experiment measures a degenerate operator answering the questions: (i) were the photons in ? and (ii) were the photons in and together? A negative answer to the last question does not tell us if photons were present in or . On the other hand, a simple variation of the proposal by Li et al. does provide conceptually better evidence for the past of the pre- and post-selected photon, but this evidence will be in agreement with the results of Danan et al.
AB - We argue that the modification proposed by Li et al. [Chin. Phys. Lett. 32 (2015) 050303 to the experiment of Danan et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 111 (2013) 240402] does not test the past of the photon as characterized by local weak traces. Instead of answering the questions: (i) were the photons in ? (ii) were the photons in ? and (iii) were the photons in ? the proposed experiment measures a degenerate operator answering the questions: (i) were the photons in ? and (ii) were the photons in and together? A negative answer to the last question does not tell us if photons were present in or . On the other hand, a simple variation of the proposal by Li et al. does provide conceptually better evidence for the past of the pre- and post-selected photon, but this evidence will be in agreement with the results of Danan et al.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85014440851
U2 - 10.1088/0256-307X/34/2/020301
DO - 10.1088/0256-307X/34/2/020301
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AN - SCOPUS:85014440851
SN - 0256-307X
VL - 34
JO - Chinese Physics Letters
JF - Chinese Physics Letters
IS - 2
M1 - 020301
ER -