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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Jonte HanceORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
The presence of an absorber in one of the paths of an interferometer changes the output statistics of that interferometer in a fundamental manner. Since the individual quantum particles detected at any of the outputs of the interferometer have not been absorbed, any non-trivial effect of the absorber on the distribution of these particles over these paths is a counterfactual effect. Here, we quantify counterfactual effects by evaluating the information about the presence or absence of the absorber obtained from the output statistics, distinguishing between classical and quantum counterfactual effects. We identify the counterfactual gain which quantifies the advantage of quantum counterfactual protocols over classical counterfactual protocols, and show that this counterfactual gain can be separated into two terms: a semi-classical term related to the amplitude blocked by the absorber, and a Kirkwood-Dirac quasiprobability assigning a joint probability to the blocked path and the output port. A negative Kirkwood-Dirac term between a path and an output port indicates that inserting the absorber into that path will have a focussing effect, increasing the probability of particles arriving at that output port, resulting in a significant enhancement of the counterfactual gain. We show that the magnitude of quantum counterfactual effects cannot be explained by a simple removal of the absorbed particles, but originates instead from a well-defined back-action effect caused by the presence of the absorber in one path, on particles in other paths.
Author(s): Ji M, Hance JR, Hofmann HF
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: New Journal of Physics
Year: 2024
Volume: 26
Issue: 6
Online publication date: 19/06/2024
Acceptance date: 10/06/2024
Date deposited: 20/06/2024
ISSN (electronic): 1367-2630
Publisher: Institute of Physics Publishing
URL: https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ad5619
DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/ad5619
Data Access Statement: No new data were created or analysed in this study.
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