2014/06/05 by Gerhard Groessing, Gerhard Grössing, Siegfried Fussy +4
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Attenuation #Beam (structure) #Computational physics #Computer science #Double-slit experiment #Intensity (physics) #Interferometry #Nonlinear system #Nuclear Physics and Applications #Optics #Physics #Quantum #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum mechanics #Statistical physics #Telecommunications #Transmission (telecommunications) #Transmission channel #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.aop.2014.11.015
published as Ann. Phys. 353 (2015), 271-281 · 19 pages, 10 figures
arxiv created 2014/06/05 · openalex publication_date 2014/12/06 · arxiv updated 2014/12/23 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Combining high and low probability densities in intensity hybrids, we study some of their properties in double-slit setups. In particular, we connect to earlier results on beam attenuation techniques in neutron interferometry and study the effects of very small transmission factors, or very low counting rates, respectively, at one of the two slits. We use a "superclassical" modeling procedure which we have previously shown to produce predictions identical with those of standard quantum theory. Although in accordance with the latter, we show that there are previously unexpected new effects in intensity hybrids for transmission factors below a\lesssim 10-4, which can eventually be observed with the aid of weak measurement techniques. We denote these as quantum sweeper effects, which are characterized by the bunching together of low counting rate particles within very narrow spatial domains. We give an explanation of this phenomenology by the circumstance that in reaching down to ever weaker channel intensities, the nonlinear nature of the probability density currents becomes ever more important, a fact which is generally not considered - although implicitly present - in standard quantum mechanics.