papers

Publications (34)

quant-ph2017

Confined Contextuality in Neutron Interferometry: Observing the Quantum Pigeonhole Effect

Mordecai Waegell, Tobias Denkmayr, Hermann Geppert +6

Previous experimental tests of quantum contextuality based on the Bell-Kochen-Specker (BKS) theorem have demonstrated that not all observables among a given set can be assigned non…

quant-ph2013

Observation of a quantum Cheshire Cat in a matter wave interferometer experiment

Tobias Denkmayr, Hermann Geppert, Stephan Sponar +4

From its very beginning quantum theory has been revealing extraordinary and counter-intuitive phenomena, such as wave-particle duality, Schrödinger cats and quantum non-locality.…

quant-ph2019

Experimental test of an entropic measurement uncertainty relation for arbitrary qubit observables

Bülent Demirel, Stephan Sponar, Alastair A. Abbott +2

A tight information-theoretic measurement uncertainty relation is experimentally tested with neutron spin-1/2 qubits. The noise associated to the measurement of an observable is de…

quant-ph2020

Experimental Test of Entropic Noise-Disturbance Uncertainty Relations for Three-Outcome Qubit Measurements

Stephan Sponar, Armin Danner, Vito Pecile +3

Information-theoretic uncertainty relations formulate the joint immeasurability of two non-commuting observables in terms of information entropies. The trade-off of the accuracy in…

hep-ph2026

Experimental test of symmetron-field based dark energy model using neutron interferometry

Andreas Dvorak, Kazuma Obigane, Hartmut Lemmel +2

We report phase shift measurements of neutron matter waves propagating in vacuum and low-pressure Argon gas, using a technique developed for neutron interferometric scattering leng…

quant-ph2022

Quantifying the presence of a neutron in the paths of an interferometer

Hartmut Lemmel, Niels Geerits, Armin Danner +3

It is commonly assumed that no accurate experimental information can be obtained on the path taken by a particle when quantum interference between the paths is observed. However, r…

quant-ph2024

Measuring the Angular Momentum of a Neutron Using Earth's Rotation

Niels Geerits, Stephan Sponar, Kyle E. Steffen +6

A coupling between Earths rotation and orbital angular momentum (OAM), known as the Sagnac effect, is observed in entangled neutrons produced using a spin echo interferometer. Afte…

quant-ph2018

Multifold paths of neutrons in the three-beam interferometer detected by tiny energy-kick

Hermann Geppert-Kleinrath, Tobias Denkmayr, Stephan Sponar +3

A neutron optical experiment is presented to investigate the paths taken by neutrons in a three-beam interferometer. In various beam-paths of the interferometer, the energy of the…

quant-ph2021

Twisting Neutral Particles with Electric Fields

Niels Geerits, Stephan Sponar

We demonstrate that spin-orbit coupled states are generated in neutral magnetic spin 1/2 particles travelling through an electric field. The quantization axis of the orbital angula…

quant-ph2015

Residual error-disturbance uncertainties in successive spin-1/2 measurements tested in matter-wave optics

Bülent Demirel, Stephan Sponar, Georg Sulyok +2

The indeterminacy inherent in quantum measurement is an outstanding character of quantum theory, which manifests itself typically in Heisenberg's error-disturbance uncertainty rela…

quant-ph2012

Response to `Comment on "Experimental demonstration of a universally valid error-disturbance uncertainty relation in spin measurements" '

Jacqueline Erhart, Stephan Sponar, Georg Sulyok +3

Here, we reply to the comment by Y. Kurihara. We show that the argument by the author is on an improper basis and thus disagree with his opinion.

quant-ph2022

Tests of Fundamental Quantum Mechanics and Dark Interactions with Low Energy Neutrons -- Extended Version

Stephan Sponar, Rene I. P. Sedmik, Mario Pitschmann +2

Among the known particles, the neutron takes a special position, as it provides experimental access to all four fundamental forces and a wide range of hypothetical interactions. De…

quant-ph2019

Spin - Rotation Coupling Observed in Neutron Interferometry

Armin Danner, Bülent Demirel, Wenzel Kersten +4

Einstein's theory of general relativity and quantum theory form the two major pillars of modern physics. However, certain inertial properties of a particle's intrinsic spin are inc…

quant-ph2013

Violation of Heisenberg's error-disturbance uncertainty relation in neutron spin measurements

Georg Sulyok, Stephan Sponar, Jacqueline Erhart +3

In its original formulation, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle dealt with the relationship between the error of a quantum measurement and the thereby induced disturbance on the me…

quant-ph2010

Kochen-Specker theorem studied with neutron interferometer

Yuji Hasegawa, Katharina Durstberger-Rennhofer, Stephan Sponar +1

The Kochen-Specker theorem theoretically shows evidence of the incompatibility of noncontextual hidden variable theories with quantum mechanics. Quantum contextuality is a more gen…

quant-ph2009

Engineering of triply entangled states in a single-neutron system

Yuji Hasegawa, Rudolf Loidl, Gerald Badurek +2

We implemented a triply entangled Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger(GHZ)-like state and coherently manipulated the spin, path, and energy degrees of freedom in a single neutron system. T…

quant-ph2020

Experimental Test of Tight State-Independent Preparation Uncertainty Relations for Qubits

Stephan Sponar, Armin Danner, Kazuma Obigane +2

The well-known Robertson-Schroedinger uncertainty relations miss an irreducible lower bound. This is widely attributed to the lower bound's state-dependence. Therefore, Abbott \emp…

quant-ph2012

Experimental demonstration of a universally valid error-disturbance uncertainty relation in spin-measurements

Jacqueline Erhart, Stephan Sponar, Georg Sulyok +3

The uncertainty principle generally prohibits determination of certain pairs of quantum mechanical observables with arbitrary precision and forms the basis of indeterminacy in quan…

quant-ph2023

Three-Path Quantum Cheshire Cat Observed in Neutron Interferometry

Armin Danner, Niels Geerits, Hartmut Lemmel +3

The paradoxical phenomenon of the quantum Cheshire Cat (qCC) refers to situations where different properties of a particle appear to be localised in different paths of an interfero…

quant-ph2014

General complex Spin Weak Values obtained in Matter-Wave Interferometer Experiments

Stephan Sponar, Tobias Denkmayr, Hermann Geppert +3

Weak values of the spin operator Sz of massive particles, more precisely neutrons, have been experimentally determined by applying a novel measurement scheme. This is achieved by c…

quant-ph2015

Experimental test of entropic noise-disturbance uncertainty relations for spin-1/2 measurements

Georg Sulyok, Stephan Sponar, Buelent Demirel +4

Information-theoretic definitions for noise and disturbance in quantum measurements were given in Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 050401 (2014) and a state-independent noise-disturbance unce…

quant-ph2021

Direct experimental test of commutation relation via weak value

Richard Wagner, Wenzel Kersten, Armin Danner +3

The canonical commutation relation is the hallmark of quantum theory and Heisenberg's uncertainty relation is a direct consequence of it. But despite its fundamental role in quantu…

quant-ph2016

Experimental demonstration of direct path state characterization by strongly measuring weak values in a matter-wave interferometer

Tobias Denkmayr, Hermann Geppert, Hartmut Lemmel +4

A novel method was recently proposed and experimentally realized for characterizing a quantum state by directly measuring its complex probability amplitudes in a particular basis u…

quant-ph2014

Improvement of the polarized neutron interferometer setup demonstrating violation of a Bell-like inequality

Hermann Geppert, Tobias Denkmayr, Stephan Sponar +2

For precise measurements with polarized neutrons high efficient spin-manipulation is required. We developed several neutron optical elements suitable for a new sophisticated setup,…

physics.ins-det2026

CANISIUS The Austrian Neutron Spin Echo Interferometer

Niels Geerits, Simon Hack, Lara Brukner +4

The broad band resonant spin echo interferometer, CANISIUS, is presented. CANISIUS is built in a versatile way, such that it can be operated in both a continuous broad band beam or…

quant-ph2025

Orbital Angular Momentum Generation in Schwinger Scattering from Perfect Quartz

Niels Geerits, Anna-Sophie Berger, Hartmut Lemmel +4

Static electric fields have been suggested as a spin to orbital angular momentum converter in neutrons. Initial calculations showed that the field required to facilitate significan…

quant-ph2025

Covariant correlation-disturbance and its experimental realization with spin-1/2 particles

Ali Asadian, Florian Gams, Stephan Sponar

We formulate a precise tradeoff relation between correlation and disturbance for sequential -outcome quantum measurements in Hilbert spaces of arbitrary dimension. This relation…

hep-ph2023

Search for dark energy with neutron interferometry

Hauke Fischer, Christian Käding, Hartmut Lemmel +2

We use previously obtained experimental results by neutron interferometry to effectively constrain the parameter space of several prominent dark energy models. This investigation e…

quant-ph2020

Neutron optical test of completeness of quantum root-mean-square errors

Stephan Sponar, Armin Danner, Masanao Ozawa +1

One of the major problems in quantum physics has been to generalize the classical root-mean-square error to quantum measurements to obtain an error measure satisfying both soundnes…

quant-ph2018

Additive Manufactured and Topology Optimized Permanent Magnet Spin-Rotator for Neutron Interferometry Applications

Wenzel Kersten, Laurids Brandl, Richard Wagner +5

In neutron interferometric experiments using polarized neutrons coherent spin-rotation control is required. In this letter we present a new method for Larmor spin-rotation around a…

quant-ph2023

Violation of a Leggett-Garg inequality using ideal negative measurements in neutron interferometry

Elisabeth Kreuzgruber, Richard Wagner, Niels Geerits +2

We report on an experiment that demonstrates the violation of a Leggett-Garg inequality (LGI) with neutrons. LGIs have been proposed in order to assess how far the predictions of q…

quant-ph2025

Tight qubit uncertainty relations studied through weak values in neutron interferometry

Andreas Dvorak, Ismaele V. Masiello, Yuji Hasegawa +3

In its original formulation, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle describes a trade-off relation between the error of a quantum measurement and the thereby induced disturbance on the…

quant-ph2026

Anomalous weak values in a generalized Mach-Zehnder interferometer extracted directly from intensity measurements

Ismaele V. Masiello, Hartmut Lemmel, Andreas Dvorak +2

Weak values provide a powerful framework for characterizing quantum systems. Their experimental extraction conventionally relies on weak conditioned von Neumann measurements, invol…

quant-ph2023

Phase Vortex Lattices in Neutron Interferometry

Niels Geerits, Hartmut Lemmel, Anna-Sophie Berger +1

A combination of aluminium prisms inserted into a nested loop interferometer is used to generate a neutron phase vortex lattice with significant extrinsic orbital angular momentum,…