Visualizing quantum coherence and decoherence in nuclear reactions

TL;DR

This paper introduces a Fourier transform-based visualization method to analyze oscillations in nuclear reaction scattering data, revealing interference origins and analogies to optical slit experiments.

Contribution

It presents a novel Fourier transform approach to visualize quantum coherence and decoherence in nuclear reactions, linking scattering oscillations to optical slit analogies.

Findings

Strong oscillations linked to nearside-farside interference in $^{16}$O+$^{16}$O

Suppressed oscillations in $^{18}$O+$^{18}$O due to absorption

Visualization as double-slit and single-slit quantum problems

Abstract

Differential cross sections of nuclear reactions often exhibit characteristic oscillations in the angular distribution originated from an interference of two indistinguishable processes. Here we propose a novel method to visualize origins of such oscillations. This is achieved by taking Fourier transform of scattering amplitudes, following the idea in wave optics. We apply this method to elastic scattering of $^{16}$O+$^{16}$O and $^{18}$O+$^{18}$O at energies above the Coulomb barrier. The former system shows strong oscillations in the angular distribution due to the nearside-farside interferences, while the oscillations are largely suppressed in the latter system due to a stronger absorption. We show that the image of the former and the latter systems corresponds to a double-slit and a single-slit problems in quantum mechanics, respectively.