A Duality in Entanglement Enabling a Test of Quantum Indistinguishability Unaffected by Interactions

Abstract

We point out an earlier unnoticed implication of quantum indistinguishability, namely, a property which we call `dualism' that characterizes the entanglement of two identical particles (say, two ions of the same species) -- a feature which is absent in the entanglement of two non-identical particles (say, two ions of different species). A crucial application of this property is that it can be used to test quantum indistinguishability without bringing the relevant particles together, thereby avoiding the effects of mutual interaction. This is in contrast to the existing tests of quantum indistinguishability. Such a scheme, being independent of the nature and strength of mutual interactions of the identical particles involved, has potential applications, including the probing of the transition from quantum indistinguishability to classical distinguishability.

Published Version. 5 pages, 1 figure, Superscedes arXiv:quant-ph/0505217

References in corpus (8)

• Matter-wave interferometry in a double well on an atom chip
• Spatial quantum noise interferometry in expanding ultracold atom clouds
• Camparison of the Hanbury Brown-Twiss effect for bosons and fermions
• Decoherence of matter waves by thermal emission of radiation
• Experimental interference of independent photons
• Quantum rings as electron spin beam splitters
• Direct experimental evidence of free fermion antibunching
• Microwave guiding of electrons on a chip