Photon Quantum Mechanics for Undergraduates

叠加是量子力学的核心，对学生来说是一个困难的概念。爱因斯坦称之为非定域的“幽灵般的超距作用”，是所谓的“纠缠态”的结果。“最近，在纠缠态的实验产生和研究方面取得了重大进展。这种状态可以用于不可破解的密码学，创新的并行计算，以及将量子状态的属性从一个物体转移到另一个物体-所谓的“量子隐形传态”，这是令人兴奋的前景。“单光子探测的进步和纠缠光子明亮源的发展使这成为学生了解这些显着发展的有利时机。该项目正在实施五个本科生实验室实验，这些实验清楚地展示了光子的量子性质，单光子干涉的存在，双光子干涉的性质和所谓的量子擦除器，以及一个通过违反贝尔不等式来证明非定域性的实验。我们的目标是创建实验和支持文本材料，帮助学生更好地理解量子力学中叠加原理的后果，并作为在本科量子力学教学大纲中做出重大改变的模型。

Physics (13) Superposition lies at the heart of quantum mechanics and is a difficult concept for students. Non-local "spooky action at a distance," as Einstein called it, occurs as a consequence of what are called "entangled states." Recently there have been significant advances in the experimental production and study of entangled states. There are exciting prospects that such states can be used for unbreakable cryptography, innovative parallel computation, and for transferring the properties of a quantum state from one object to another some distance away - so called "quantum teleportation." Advances in single photon detection and the development of bright sources of entangled photons make this an opportune time to prepare students to understand these remarkable developments. The project is implementing five undergraduate laboratory experiments that clearly exhibit the quantum nature of the photon, the existence of single-photon interference, the nature of two-photon interference and the so-called quantum erasers, and an experiment that demonstrates nonlocality by the violation of Bell's inequalities. The goal is to create experiments and supporting textual materials that help students to better understand the ramifications of the superposition principle in quantum mechanics and that also serve as a model for making significant changes in the syllabus of undergraduate quantum mechanics.