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

Tobias Denkmayr, Hermann Geppert, Stephan Sponar, Hartmut Lemmel, Alexandre Matzkin, Jeff Tollaksen and Yuji Hasegawa ()
Additional contact information
Tobias Denkmayr: Atominstitut, Vienna University of Technology
Hermann Geppert: Atominstitut, Vienna University of Technology
Stephan Sponar: Atominstitut, Vienna University of Technology
Hartmut Lemmel: Atominstitut, Vienna University of Technology
Alexandre Matzkin: Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Modélisation, CNRS Unité 8089, Université de Cergy-Pontoise
Jeff Tollaksen: Institute for Quantum Studies and Schmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University
Yuji Hasegawa: Atominstitut, Vienna University of Technology

Nature Communications, 2014, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract 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. Another paradoxical phenomenon found within the framework of quantum mechanics is the ‘quantum Cheshire Cat’: if a quantum system is subject to a certain pre- and postselection, it can behave as if a particle and its property are spatially separated. It has been suggested to employ weak measurements in order to explore the Cheshire Cat’s nature. Here we report an experiment in which we send neutrons through a perfect silicon crystal interferometer and perform weak measurements to probe the location of the particle and its magnetic moment. The experimental results suggest that the system behaves as if the neutrons go through one beam path, while their magnetic moment travels along the other.

Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms5492 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms5492

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5492

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().