Fringe visibility and correlation in Mach-Zehnder interferometer with an asymmetric beam splitter

TL;DR

This paper investigates how asymmetry in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer's beam splitter affects wave-particle duality, correlations, and fringe visibility using quantum information theory, revealing their interdependent nature.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis of correlations and fringe visibility in asymmetric interferometers, highlighting the influence of input states and beam splitter asymmetry on quantum duality.

Findings

Correlations depend on beam splitter asymmetry and input states.

Fringe visibility is affected by the same parameters.

Complementary relations between visibility and correlations are established.

Abstract

We study the wave-particle duality in a general Mach-Zehnder interferometer with an asymmetric beam splitter from the viewpoint of quantum information theory. The correlations(including the classical correlation and the quantum correlation) between the particle and the which-path detector are derived when they are in pure state or mixed state at the output of Mach-Zehnder interferometer. It is found that the fringe visibility and the correlations are effected by the asymmetric beam splitter and the input state of the particle. The complementary relations between the fringe visibility and the correlations are also presented.