Exploring the Quantum: Atoms, Cavities, and Photons
Serge Haroche and Jean-Michel Raimond
Abstract
The counter-intuitive aspects of quantum physics have been illustrated for some time by thought experiments, from Einstein's photon box to Schrödinger's cat. These experiments have now become real, with single particles — electrons, atoms or photons — directly unveiling the weird features of the quantum. State superpositions, entanglement and complementarity define a novel quantum logic that can be harnessed for information processing, raising great hopes for applications. This book describes a class of such thought experiments made real. Juggling with atoms and photons confined in cavities, i ... More
The counter-intuitive aspects of quantum physics have been illustrated for some time by thought experiments, from Einstein's photon box to Schrödinger's cat. These experiments have now become real, with single particles — electrons, atoms or photons — directly unveiling the weird features of the quantum. State superpositions, entanglement and complementarity define a novel quantum logic that can be harnessed for information processing, raising great hopes for applications. This book describes a class of such thought experiments made real. Juggling with atoms and photons confined in cavities, ions or cold atoms in traps, provides an incentive to shed a new light on the basic concepts of quantum physics. Measurement processes and decoherence at the quantum-classical boundary are highlighted.
Keywords:
counter-intuitive aspects,
quantum physics,
state superpositions,
entanglement,
complementarity,
quantum logic,
information processing,
decoherence,
quantum-classical boundary,
single particles
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2006 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780198509141 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2010 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198509141.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Serge Haroche, author
Collège de France
Jean-Michel Raimond, author
Université P. et M. Curie et Institut Universitaire de France
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