Quantum time-of-flight measurements: Kicked clock versus continuous clock

Journal Article · Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 2003 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.67.032105· OSTI ID:20633808

Alonso, Daniel; Sala Mayato, R; Muga, J G ^[1]

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1. Departamento de Fisica Fundamental y Experimental, Electronica y Sistemas, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain)

The measurement of time durations or instants of occurrence of events has been frequently modeled 'operationally' by coupling the system of interest to a ''clock.'' According to several of these models, the operational approach is limited at low energies because the perturbation of the clock does not allow to reproduce accurately the corresponding ideal time quantity, defined for the system in isolation. We show that, for a time-of-flight measurement model that can be set to measure dwell or arrival times, these limitations may be overcome by extending the range of energies where the clock works properly using pulsed couplings rather than continuous ones.

• OSTI ID: 20633808
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Vol. 67, Issue 3; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.67.032105; (c) 2003 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1050-2947
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
COUPLING
DISTURBANCES
QUANTUM MECHANICS
TIME MEASUREMENT
TIME-OF-FLIGHT METHOD