Two-photon wave mechanics

The position-representation wave function for multiphoton states and its equation of motion are introduced. A major strength of the theory is that it describes the complete evolution (including polarization and entanglement) of multiphoton states propagating through inhomogeneous media. As a demonstration of the two-photon wave function's use, we show how two photons in an orbital-angular-momentum entangled state decohere upon propagation through a turbulent atmosphere.

[1]  E. Knill,et al.  A scheme for efficient quantum computation with linear optics , 2001, Nature.

[2]  Anton Zeilinger,et al.  Filtering out photonic Fock states. , 2006, Physical review letters.

[3]  I. Bialynicki-Birula.  Exponential Localization of Photons , 1998 .

[4]  R. Peierls,et al.  Quantenelektrodynamik im Konfigurationsraum , 1930 .

[5]  J. C. Leader.  Atmospheric propagation of partially coherent radiation , 1978 .

[6]  I. Bialynicki-Birula.  On the Wave Function of the Photon , 1994 .

[7]  R. Glauber,et al.  Density Operators for Coherent Fields , 1966 .

[8]  Aephraim M. Steinberg,et al.  Diagnosis, prescription, and prognosis of a bell-state filter by quantum process tomography. , 2003, Physical review letters.

[9]  Shih,et al.  Two-photon geometric optics. , 1996, Physical review. A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics.

[10]  C. Paterson,et al.  Atmospheric turbulence and orbital angular momentum of single photons for optical communication. , 2005, Physical review letters.

[11]  M. Teich,et al.  Wolf equations for two-photon light. , 2005, Physical review letters.

[12]  C H Monken,et al.  Multimode Hong-Ou-mandel interference. , 2003, Physical review letters.

[13]  M. S. Zubairy,et al.  The photon wave function , 2005, SPIE Optics + Photonics.

[14]  L. Mandel,et al.  Optical Coherence and Quantum Optics , 1995 .

[15]  Daniel R. Terno,et al.  Quantum Information and Relativity Theory , 2002, quant-ph/0212023.

[16]  Measurement of the transverse spatial quantum state of light at the single-photon level. , 2005, Optics letters.

[17]  M. Hawton.  Photon wave functions in a localized coordinate space basis , 1999 .

[18]  Sipe,et al.  Photon wave functions. , 1995, Physical review. A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics.

[19]  E. Wolf,et al.  Mode analysis of spreading of partially coherent beams propagating through atmospheric turbulence. , 2003, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, image science, and vision.

[20]  Michael G. Raymer,et al.  The Maxwell wave function of the photon (Invited Paper) , 2005, SPIE Optics + Photonics.

[21]  M. S. Zubairy,et al.  Quantum optics: Frontmatter , 1997 .

[22]  Eugene P. Wigner,et al.  Localized States for Elementary Systems , 1949 .

[23]  W. Wootters.  Entanglement of Formation of an Arbitrary State of Two Qubits , 1997, quant-ph/9709029.