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Quantum Beam Scattering --- Beam's Coherence Length, Which-path Information, and Weak Values
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: Received: 23 May 2023 / Approved: 24 May 2023 / Online: 24 May 2023 (13:25:07 CEST)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Chatzidimitriou-Dreismann, C.A. Quantum Beam Scattering—Beam’s Coherence Length, Which-Path Information andWeak Values. Quantum Beam Sci. 2023, 7, 26. Chatzidimitriou-Dreismann, C.A. Quantum Beam Scattering—Beam’s Coherence Length, Which-Path Information andWeak Values. Quantum Beam Sci. 2023, 7, 26.
Abstract
The conventional theory of neutron beams interacting with many-body systems treats the beam as a classical system, i.e. with its dynamical variables appearing in the quantum dynamics of the scattering process not as operators but only as c-numbers. Moreover, neutrons are described with plane waves, i.e. the concept of neutron's (finite) coherence length is here irrelevant. The same holds for electron, atom or X-ray scattering. This simplification results in the full decoupling of the probe particle's dynamics from the quantum dynamics of the scatterer---a well-known fact also reflected in the standard formalism of time-correlation functions (see textbooks). Making contact with modern quantum theoretical approaches (e.g., quantum entanglement, 'which-path detection' versus interference, von Neumann measurement, Week Values, etc.) new observable effects may be exposed and/or predicted, for instance, a momentum-transfer deficit and an intensity deficit in neutron scattering from protons of hydrogen-containing samples. 7
Keywords
quantum beams; quantum entanglement; which-path information; complementarity; von Neumann measurement; non-relativistic neutron scattering; momentum-transfer deficit; H-intensity deficit; neutron Compton scattering; incoherent neutron scattering
Subject
Physical Sciences, Quantum Science and Technology
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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