Experimental demonstration of macroscopic quantum coherence in Gaussian states

Publication: Research - peer-reviewJournal article – Annual report year: 2007

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We witness experimentally the presence of macroscopic coherence in Gaussian quantum states using a recently proposed criterion [E. G. Cavalcanti and M. D. Reid, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97 170405 (2006)]. The macroscopic coherence stems from interference between macroscopically distinct states in phase space, and we prove experimentally that a coherent state contains these features with a distance in phase space of 0.51 +/- 0.02 shot noise units. This is surprising because coherent states are generally considered being at the border between classical and quantum states, not yet displaying any nonclassical effect. For squeezed and entangled states the effect may be larger but depends critically on the state purity.
Original languageEnglish
JournalPhysical Review A (Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics)
Publication date2007
Volume76
Journal number3
Pages030101
ISSN1050-2947
DOIs
StatePublished

Bibliographical note

Copyright 2007 American Physical Society

CitationsWeb of Science® Times Cited: 2

Keywords

  • SUPERPOSITION, MECHANICS

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