Observation of PT-symmetric quantum interference
By F. Klauck, L. Teuber, M. Ornigotti, M. Heinrich, S. Scheel, Alexander Szameit. Nature Photonics, 2019
153 citations recorded by the source corpus.
A common wisdom in quantum mechanics is that the Hamiltonian has to be Hermitian in order to ensure a real eigenvalue spectrum. Yet, parity–time (PT)-symmetric Hamiltonians are sufficient for real eigenvalues and therefore constitute a complex extension of quantum mechanics beyond the constraints of Hermiticity. However, as only single-particle or classical wave physics has been exploited so far, an experimental demonstration of the true quantum nature of PT symmetry has been elusive. In our work, we demonstrate two-particle quantum interference in a PT-symmetric system. We employ integrated photonic waveguides to reveal that the quantum dynamics of indistinguishable photons shows strongly counterintuitive features. To substantiate our experimental data, we analytically solve the quantum master equation using Lie algebra methods. The ideas and results presented here pave the way for non-local PT-symmetric quantum mechanics as a novel building block for future quantum devices. Parity–time symmetry in second quantization is demonstrated in an integrated non-Hermitian coupled waveguide structure. A counterintuitive shift of the position of the Hong–Ou–Mandel dip is observed in integrated lossy waveguide structures.
Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0001a21cd3ce9aa91e9cdff15fa58ccd3c3a3b02
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In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
In Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
Citations in the corpus
- Non-Abelian braiding on photonic chips (2021, methodology): “The system is comprised of evanescently coupled photonic waveguides, wherein the evolution of photons follows a Schrödinger-like paraxial equation [34, 35].”