Quantum Institute: Visitor Schedule

The Quantum Lunch is regularly held on Thursdays in the Theoretical Division Conference Room, TA-3, Building 123, Room 121. For more information, contact Diego Dalvit.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007
2PM to 3PM

Luca Pezze
Universita Degli Studi di Trento, Italy

Phase Estimation at the Heisenberg Limit with Mach-Zehnder Interferometry

Abstract

The central goal of interferometry is the inference of phase shifts with the highest possible confidence. The quest is limited by the irreducible fluctuations imposed by the laws of Quantum Mechanics.

In the last few years, it has become clear that quantum entanglement has the potential to revolutionize interferometry by allowing a phase estimation with sensitivity scaling as 1/N, the so-called Heisenberg limit, being N the total number of particles employed in the estimation process. This represents a large improvement when compared to the performance of standard interferometry where the phase uncertainty is bounded by the shot-noise, 1/N^(1/2).

In this talk, I will discuss tailored states and optimal phase estimation strategies to reach, within the current technology, the Heisenberg limit of phase sensitivity with photons and Bose-Einstein Condensates in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer.