The single-photon steering and the quantum mechanical free-interaction measurement are identical phenomena

TL;DR

This paper proposes a simple experimental demonstration of single-photon steering, shows its equivalence to quantum mechanical free-interaction measurement, and discusses implications for counterfactual quantum communication.

Contribution

It introduces a new experimental scheme for demonstrating single-photon steering using internal degrees of freedom and unifies it with QM-IFM as identical phenomena.

Findings

Demonstrated a simple method for single-photon steering

Established the equivalence between single-photon steering and QM-IFM

Suggested implications for counterfactual quantum communication

Abstract

In this work, firstly, we propose how to experimentally demonstrate the single photon steering phenomenon in a simple way. The quantum steering phenomenon was discovered by Erwin Schrodinger, who reason that the laws of quantum mechanics obliges us to admit that by suitable measurements taken on one of two entangled system, then the state of the other system can be determined and steered. On the other hand, the first proposal about the nonlocal property of a single photon focus on showing the Bell nonlocality by using the single-photon path entanglement. Here, we propose a new experimental scheme that, by incorporating and manipulating the internal degree of freedom (IDF) of the photon, easily demonstrate the nonlocal steering phenomenon of single-photon's states. The experimental set-up that we propose differs from those published in the quantum optics' literature to shown the single photon nonlocality, which generally use the path entanglement of photons and homodyne measurements. Secondly, by incorporating its IDF, we show that the single photon steering and the quantum mechanical interaction-free measurement (QM-IFM) are identical phenomena; we will argue that QM-IFM is just a particular instance of the single-photon steering. In short, both the single photon steering and QM-IFM (being identical phenomena) have a common cause: the nonlocality of the wave function. In conclusion, we have demonstrated that it is possible to produce a nonlocal phenomena by manipulating the single photon internal degree of freedom. On the other hand, this unification between steering and QM-IFM could establish a strong support to counterfactual quantum communication and computation.