2000/08/23 by D. Ludwin, Doron ludwin, Y. Ben-Aryeh +5
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Frequency and Time Standards #FOS: Physical sciences #Photonic and Optical Devices #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Semiconductor Lasers and Optical Devices #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.quant-ph/0008096
15 'microsoft-word' pages, 1 figure
arxiv created 2000/08/23 · openalex publication_date 2000/08/23 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We discuss complementarity and uncertainty in a gedanken Which-Way (Welcher-Weg) experiment in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Although a Welcher-Weg measurement can be performed with only a negligible amount of momentum change in the detector itself, the change in the interference pattern must correspond to a change in the momentum distribution of the particle. Entanglement between the Mach-Zehnder interferometer and the Welcher-Weg measurement introduces orthogonality that disables the interference of the particle, but simultaneously, it also generates a momentum transfer between the particle and other parts of the whole entangled system (including macroscopic parts). This analysis can be related to the Delayed Choice interpretation. We show where the momentum change takes place and we conclude that entanglement is the key to understand how complementarity (i.e. Which Way versus interference) and the position-momentum uncertainty relation are interwoven.