Observation of a Quantum Cheshire Cat in a Matter-Wave Interferometer Experiment

Authors

Tobias Denkmayr, Vienna University of Technology
Hermann Geppert, Vienna University of Technology
Stephan Sponar, Vienna University of Technology
Hartmut Lemmel, Vienna University of Technology
Alexandre Matzkin, Laboratoire de Physique The´orique et Mode´lisation, CNRS Unite
Jeff Tollaksen, Chapman UniversityFollow
Yuji Hasegawa, Vienna University of Technology

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2014

Abstract

From its very beginning, quantum theory has been revealing extraordinary and counter-intuitive phenomena, such as wave-particle duality, Schrodinger 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.

Comments

This article was originally published in Nature Communications, volume 5, in 2014. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5492

Recommended Citation

Denkmayr, T. et al. Observation of a quantum Cheshire Cat in a matter-wave interferometer experiment. Nat. Commun. 5:4492 doi: 10.1038/ncomms5492 (2014).

Peer Reviewed

1

Copyright

Macmillan Publishers Limited

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.