Wave-particle duality revisited

TL;DR

This paper revisits wave-particle duality in a symmetric interferometer, revealing that the order of readout affects the distinguishability bounds, challenging established inequalities in quantum mechanics.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the sequence of readout impacts the wave-particle duality bounds, showing violations of known inequalities under certain measurement conditions.

Findings

Readout order influences wave-particle duality measurements.

Violations of established duality inequalities are possible.

Using the interfering object's state can increase distinguishability beyond traditional bounds.

Abstract

We investigate wave-particle duality in a symmetric two-way interferometer with a which-way detector. We find that it is important to state wether the interfering object or the which-way detector is read out first. In case that the interfering object is read out first, we discover that it is possible to use the information about its state to increase the distinguishability to a value which violates the widely accepted bounds set by an inequality introduced by Jaeger et al. (PRA 51, 54) and Englert (PRL 77, 2154).