AnAnalysisofThreePathInterference

FrankRioux
Quantummechanicsteachesthatifthereismorethanonepathtoaparticulardestinationinterference
effectsarelikely.Insuchcasestheprobabilityofarrivalatalocationisthesquareofthemagnitudeofthe
sumoftheprobabilityamplitudesforeachpathtothatlocation.Forexample,inatripleslitdiffraction
experimenttheprobabilityofarrivingatxonthedetectionscreeninDiracnotationis,
2 2
123
3 3 2 2 1 1 P x S x S x S x S = = + +
Thesinglephotoninterferometershownbelow[Franson,Science329,396(2010)]isaclosecousinofthe
tripleslitexperimentbecauseitprovidesthreepathstothedetector.Initiallywewillignoretheothertwo
outputchannelsAandB.
ThreePathInterference
ProbabilityAmplitudes
Inthisanalysistheprobabilityamplitudesarecalculateonthefollowingconventions.
Assume5050beamsplittersandassignt/2(i)phaseshifttoreflection(usualconvention).
Transmissionatabeamsplitter: T
1
2
:= Reflectionatabeamsplitter: R
i
2
:=
Reflectionatamirror: M 1 :=
FirstwecalculatetheprobabilitythatthephotonwillarriveattheDetector(3paths):
R M T T T R R T + T T M R + ( )
2
0.5625 =
ToestablishthatprobabilityisconservedtheprobabilitiesforarrivalatAandBarecalculated.
CalculatetheprobabilitythatthephotonwillarriveatA(2paths):
T R T R M R + ( )
2
0.375 =
CalculatetheprobabilitythatthephotonwillarriveatB(3paths):
R M T R T R R R + T T M T + ( )
2
0.0625 =
Demonstratethatprobabilityisconserved: 0.5625 0.375 + .0625 + 1 =
Whilethistraditionalanalysispostulatesthreepathinterferenceforthearrivalprobabilityatthe
detector,Sinhaetal.[Science329,418(2010)]arguethattrueinterferenceonlyoccursbetweenpairsof
paths.Inthiscasebetweenpaths1&2,1&3,and2&3.Fransonsummarizedthisviewasfollows:
Quantuminterferencebetweenmanydifferentpathwaysissimplythesumoftheeffectsfromallpairs
ofpathways.
Theprobabilityexpressionforaneventinvolvingtwoequivalentpathsis
2 2
2
* *
ij i j i j i j j i i j ij
P P P I = + + + = + + + + + + + + + = + +
whereI
ij
istheinterferencetermandP
i
isdefinedastheprobabilitywhenonlythei
th
pathisopen.Itis
myopinionthatthislatterdesignationisnotstrictlyvalid.However,acceptingitforthetimebeing
leadstothefollowingdefinitionfortwopathinterference.
ij ij i j
I P P P =
Bysimilarargumentstheprobabilityexpressionforaneventinvolvingthreeequivalentpathsis,
123 1 2 3 12 13 23
P P P P I I I = + + + + +
Usingthisequationtodefinethirdorderinterferenceyields,
( )
123 123 1 2 3 12 13 23
I P P P P I I I = + + + + +
UsingthedefinitionforI
ij
weobtain,
123 123 1 2 3 12 13 13
I P P P P P P P = + + +
FromaboveP
123
=0.5625.Theremainingtermsinthisequationarecalculatebelow:
P
1
R M T T ( )
2
0.125 = P
2
T R R T ( )
2
0.0625 = P
3
T T M R ( )
2
0.125 =
P
12
P
13
P
23
R M T T T R R T + ( )
2
R M T T T T M R + ( )
2
+ T R R T T T M R + ( )
2
+ 0.875 =
Thesecalculationsshowthatthreepathinterferenceiszero.
I
123
0.5625 0.125 + 0.0625 + 0.125 + 0.875 0 :=
This,ofcourse,isatheoreticalresultbasedonthedefinitionsofP
i
andI
ij
givenabove.The
experimentalresultsreportedbySinhaetal.fortherelatedtripleslitdiffractionexperimentarein
agreementwiththetheoreticalexpectationtowithinexperimentalerror
ObjectiontotheDefinitions
Sinhaetal.writethedoubleslitwavefunction(unnormalized)asalinearsuperpositionofthephoton
takingtwopaths(AandB)tothedetector.Thesquaremodulusofthewavefunctiongivesthe
probabilityexpression.
2 2 2
A B A B B A

- -
+ = + + +
Obviouslythisisjusttraditionalquantummechanicalmathematicalprocedure.TheproblemIhaveis
withtheinterpretationorpartitionofthisequationthatcomesnext.Theauthorswritetheprobability
expressionas
2
A B AB
P P I + = + +
whereP
A
(P
B
)istheprobabilitythatonlyslitA(B)isopenandtheremainingtermsrepresenttheactual
interference.
Idonotbelievethissortofpartitioningofthetermsof|+|
2
isquantummechanicallylegitimate.Ifonly
slitAisopenthenthewavefunctionis+=
A
andnot+=
A
+
B
.Itisspeciousreasoningtosay,in
thedoubleslitexperiment,that|
A
|
2
istheprobabilitythatthephotongoesthroughslitA.
AsRoyGlauberhaswritten[AJP63,12(1995)],Thethingsthatinterfereinquantummechanics...are
theprobabilityamplitudesforcertainevents.Thetripleslitexperimentinvolvestheinterferenceof
threeprobabilityamplitudesbecausetherearethreepathsfromthesource(S)toeachposition(x)on
thedetectionscreen.Accordingtoquantumfundamentals,eachphotontakesallthreepaths
simultaneously.
123
3 3 2 2 1 1 x S x S x S x S + = = + +
InChapter3ofvolumeIIIofTheFeynmanLecturesonPhysics,Feynmandiscussesadiffractionexperiment
inwhichtherearesixpathstoanypositiononthedetectionscreen.Feynmansanalysisleadstothe
followingprobabilityamplitudefortheparticletobedetectedatx.
1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 x S x a a S x b b S x c c S x a a S x b b S x c c S = + + + + +
ThesesuperpositionsofprobabilityamplitudesareexamplesofFeynmanssumoverhistoriesapproach
toquantummechanics,ofwhichthedoubleslitexperimentisthesimplestexample.Itisclearthat
pairwiseinterferenceisnotsuggestedinthisapproach,exceptforthedoubleslitexperimentandthen
onlybecauseinthatcasethereareonlytwopaths.Feynmansruleis,sumtheamplitudesforallpaths
toallowforinterferencebeforesquaringtheabsolutemagnitudeofthesumtoobtaintheprobability.
FreemanDysonhadthefollowingreactionwhenhefirstheardFeynmansnovelapproachtoquantum
mechanics.Thirtyoneyearsago,DickFeynmantoldmeabouthissumoverhistoriesversionof
quantummechanics.Theelectrondoesanythingitlikes,hesaid.Itjustgoesinanydirection,atany
speed,forwardorbackwardintime,howeveritlikes,andthenyouadduptheamplitudesanditgives
youthewavefunction.IsaidtohimYourecrazy.Butheisnt.