Issue |
EPL
Volume 110, Number 5, June 2015
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 50001 | |
Number of page(s) | 6 | |
Section | General | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/110/50001 | |
Published online | 19 June 2015 |
Toward a test of angular-momentum coherence in a twin-atom interferometer
1 Instituto de Física, UFRJ - Cx. Postal 68528, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21941-972, Brazil
2 Laboratoire Aimé Cotton CNRS, Univ Paris Sud-11 - 91405 Orsay Cedex, France
3 Departamento de Física, UFBA - Salvador, BA 40210-340, Brazil
4 Departamento de Física, UFJF - Juiz de Fora, MG 36036-330, Brazil
(a) crenato@if.ufrj.br
(b) ginette@if.ufrj.br
(c) impens@if.ufrj.br
Received: 19 November 2014
Accepted: 26 May 2015
We present a scheme well suited to investigate quantitatively the angular-momentum coherence of molecular fragments. Assuming that the dissociated molecule has a null total angular-momentum, we investigate the propagation of the corresponding atomic fragments in the apparatus. We show that the envisioned interferometer enables one to distinguish unambiguously a spin-coherent from a spin-incoherent dissociation, as well as to estimate the purity of the angular-momentum density matrix associated with the fragments. This setup, which may be seen as an atomic analogue of a twin-photon interferometer, can be used to investigate the suitability of molecule dissociation processes —such as the metastable hydrogen atoms H(22S)-H(22S) dissociation— for coherent twin-atom optics.
PACS: 03.65.Ud – Entanglement and quantum nonlocality (e.g. EPR paradox, Bell's inequalities, GHZ states, etc.) / 03.75.Dg – Atom and neutron interferometry
© EPLA, 2015
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