Interference Between Distinguishable States
Thomas Alexander Meyer · 2013
Interference effects are known to have a dependence upon indistinguishability of path. For this reason, it is accepted that different sources of a system cannot interfere if they have distinguishable states. We present an analysis of interference that predicts the allowance of interference between distinguishable states under the strict condition that the preparation has no distinguishability of path that results from the distinguishability of the states of the possible sources. This leads us to a new analysis of the quantum eraser experiment. In Principle Indistinguishability of paths In the history of interference effects in quantum mechanics it is dogmatically accepted in the literature that interference will only occur if there is no distinguishing information of path. For the classic double slit interference effect it is often argued that the knowledge of the system’s passage through one of the slits will lead to the result of non-interference, and only in the preparation where there is no such knowledge will the interference be measured. The reason for which interference effects require that the preparation be one where there is no implied knowledge of path is because any knowledge of path would imply a different state description. Knowledge of path could only be possible if the state of the system was not the superposition of states which allows for both paths. This can be loosely stated by