Quantum state diffusion & experimental tests of quantum mechanics

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Project objective

Recently, Gisin and Percival proposed modified Schroedinger equations suitable to describe (1) the quantum dynamics of a single quantum system in a dissipative environment (Quantum State Diffusion (QSD) (1)) or (2) the intrinsic diffusion of quantum systems as a fundamentally modified quantum theory (Primary State Diffusion (PSD) (2)), in which the diffusion is primary and the Schroedinger evolution is secondary. The aim of this project is to describe precision experiments to test PS The fundamental loss of coherence in PSD theory leads to small but measurable deviations from the results of standard quantum theory. Within the next few years, matter interferometry experiments appear to be the most promising critical experiments. The first aim is the thorough theoretical investigation of an atom interferometric experiment with PSD. This requires the development of special relativistic PSD to replace the order-of-magnitude relativistic hypothesis of (2). Therefore, new general analytical and computational methods have to be de- veloped to solve nonlinear stochastic Schroedinger-Langevin equations. These will not only be applied to the solution of PSD equations but will also serve as a new efficient tool (QSD) to solve density operator equations as they arise in Quantum Optics. The emphasis will be on the development of combined semiclassical (h->O) and efficient numerical methods to cover a wide range of new applications. (1) N Gisin and I C Percival, J Phys A: Math Gen 26 2233 and 2245 (1993) (2) I C Percival Proc Roy Soc A 447 189 (1994)

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

• QUEEN MARY AND WESTFIELD COLLEGE - UNIVERSITY OF LONDON · LONDONCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
• Not availableCity levelGermany

Links

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