Bright and Dark States of Light: The quantum Origin of Classical Interference

2021/12/10 by Celso J. Villas-Boas, Carlos E. Máximo, Paulo J. Paulino +2 · 3 voices · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #quant-ph #physics.atom-ph #physics.optics

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.134.133603

arxiv published 2021/12/10 · arxiv updated 2025/05/02

Abstract

Classical theory asserts that several electromagnetic waves cannot interact with matter if they interfere destructively to zero, whereas quantum mechanics predicts a nontrivial light-matter dynamics even when the average electric field vanishes. Here we show that in quantum optics classical interference emerges from collective bright and dark states of light, i.e., entangled superpositions of multi-mode photon-number states. This makes it possible to explain wave interference using the particle description of light and the superposition principle for linear systems.

Cited by

• Measuring dark state number in the Tavis-Cummings model
• Quantum mechanics, non-locality, and the space discreteness hypothesis
• Interference between non-overlapping waves
• Interference Between Electromagnetic and Mechanical Waves

Discussions

• (Please note : while the reply below addresses some of my questions, not all of them have been answered yet. Further contributions are welcome...) So, in the paper "Bright and dark states of light: Th [stackexchange, 3 points]
• The paper is here too arxiv.org/abs/2112.05512 [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
• Since no one else is answering the newly bountied version of the question, which is motivated by "Bright and dark states of light: the quantum origin of classical interference" , I will make a few com [stackexchange, 0 points]

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