Two-particle correlated interference in reflection: extending the quantum-classical boundary via a macroscopic quantum superposition insensitive to decoherence

TL;DR

This paper explores two-particle correlated interference during reflection, demonstrating that macroscopic superpositions can exhibit quantum interference effects insensitive to decoherence, with implications for quantum-classical boundary studies.

Contribution

It introduces a model of two-body correlated interference involving a microscopic particle and a macroscopic mirror, extending quantum interference concepts to larger scales.

Findings

Interference fringes persist as mirror mass increases.

Measurements on reflected particles can reveal the quantum state of macroscopic mirrors.

Mirror coherence can be transferred from particles, illustrating quantum-classical transition.

Abstract

Reflection of a microscopic particle from a mesoscopic/macroscopic `mirror' generates two-body correlated interference from the incident and reflected particle substates and their associated mirror substates. The microscopic momentum exchanged generates two mirror substates which interfere to produce fringes which do not vanish as the mirror mass increases. The small displacement between these mirror states can yield negligible environmental decoherence times. Mirror coherence lengths impose constraints on the extent of this interference, which are mitigated using interference of the two-body states associated with the particle reflecting from both of the two surfaces of a slab of matter in a manner analogous to the classical interference of a pulse of light reflecting from a `thin film'. This two-body correlated interference is modeled as a particle traversing a finite well with both the particle and well treated quantum mechanically. Such a treatment predicts the expected `thin-film' interference but only as a special case of a more general result. It is also shown that measurements on only the reflected particle (yielding a marginal probability density function) can act as a probe to reveal the quantum state of the macroscopic reflector. For equal masses, coherence of the particle substate is transferred to the mirror substate, a quantum manifestation of a familiar classical result.