Premium
An Experimental Proposal to Study Collapse of the Wave Function in Traveling‐Wave Parametric Amplifiers
Author(s) -
van der Reep Thomas H. A.,
Rademaker Louk,
Le Large Xavier G. A.,
Guis Ruben H.,
Oosterkamp Tjerk H.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
physica status solidi (b)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1521-3951
pISSN - 0370-1972
DOI - 10.1002/pssb.202170017
Subject(s) - interferometry , amplifier , physics , amplitude , optics , phase (matter) , parametric statistics , parametric oscillator , state (computer science) , quantum mechanics , mathematics , statistics , optoelectronics , algorithm , cmos
During the process of measurement, quantum signals are amplified to human proportions. The question arises whether this amplification stage is responsible for the reduction of the state vector (also known as collapse of the wave function) during measurement. The cover image shows an artist’s impression of the experiment proposed by Tjerk H. Oosterkamp and co‐workers (article number 2000567 ) to test this hypothesis. A single photon, indicated with sinusoids with a well‐determined amplitude, but unknown phase, is amplified within an interferometer. At some gain of the amplifiers the state might collapse unto a state with a well‐defined phase. The authors study how they can observe whether a collapse took place within the interferometer, or not.