dorsal/arxiv
View Schema"Interaction-free" discrimination between semi-transparent objects
| Authors | Graeme Mitchison, Serge Massar |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0003140 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0003140 |
| DOI | 10.1103/PhysRevA.63.032105 |
| Journal | Phys. Rev. A 63, 032105 (2001) |
Abstract
Absorption-free (also known as ``interaction-free'') measurement aims to detect the presence of an opaque object using a test particle without that particle being absorbed by the object. Here we consider semi-transparent objects which have an amplitude $\alpha$ of transmitting a particle while leaving the state of the object unchanged and an amplitude $\beta$ of absorbing the particle. The task is to devise a protocol that can decide which of two known transmission amplitudes is present while ensuring that no particle interacts with the object. We show that the probabilities of being able to achieve this are limited by an inequality. This inequality implies that absorption free distinction between complete transparency and any partial transparency is always possible with probabilities approaching 1, but that two partial transparencies can only be distinguished with probabilities less than 1.
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"abstract": "Absorption-free (also known as ``interaction-free\u0027\u0027) measurement aims to\ndetect the presence of an opaque object using a test particle without that\nparticle being absorbed by the object. Here we consider semi-transparent\nobjects which have an amplitude $\\alpha$ of transmitting a particle while\nleaving the state of the object unchanged and an amplitude $\\beta$ of absorbing\nthe particle. The task is to devise a protocol that can decide which of two\nknown transmission amplitudes is present while ensuring that no particle\ninteracts with the object. We show that the probabilities of being able to\nachieve this are limited by an inequality. This inequality implies that\nabsorption free distinction between complete transparency and any partial\ntransparency is always possible with probabilities approaching 1, but that two\npartial transparencies can only be distinguished with probabilities less than\n1.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0003140",
"authors": [
"Graeme Mitchison",
"Serge Massar"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph"
],
"doi": "10.1103/PhysRevA.63.032105",
"journal_ref": "Phys. Rev. A 63, 032105 (2001)",
"title": "\"Interaction-free\" discrimination between semi-transparent objects",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0003140"
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