Obtaining tight bounds on higher-order interferences with a 5-path interferometer
- Author(s)
- Thomas Kauten, Robert Keil, Thomas Kaufmann, Benedikt Pressl, Caslav Brukner, Gregor Weihs
- Abstract
Within the established theoretical framework of quantum mechanics, interference always occurs between pairs of paths through an interferometer. Higher order interferences with multiple constituents are excluded by Born's rule and can only exist in generalized probabilistic theories. Thus, high-precision experiments searching for such higher order interferences are a powerful method to distinguish between quantum mechanics and more general theories. Here, we perform such a test in an optical multi-path interferometer, which avoids crucial systematic errors, has access to the entire phase space and is more stable than previous experiments. Our results are in accordance with quantum mechanics and rule out the existence of higher order interference terms in optical interferometry to an extent that is more than four orders of magnitude smaller than the expected pairwise interference, refining previous bounds by two orders of magnitude.
- Organisation(s)
- Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information
- External organisation(s)
- Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW)
- Journal
- New Journal of Physics
- Volume
- 19
- No. of pages
- 8
- ISSN
- 1367-2630
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/aa5d98
- Publication date
- 03-2017
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 103025 Quantum mechanics, 103026 Quantum optics
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Physics and Astronomy(all)
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/obtaining-tight-bounds-on-higherorder-interferences-with-a-5path-interferometer(22ecd8f6-ebbc-4727-84c8-8895f5776e9d).html