Particle Statistics Affects Quantum Decay and Fano Interference

Andrea Crespi, Linda Sansoni, Giuseppe Della Valle, Alessio Ciamei, Roberta Ramponi, Fabio Sciarrino, Paolo Mataloni, Stefano Longhi, and Roberto Osellame
Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 090201 – Published 2 March 2015
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Abstract

Quantum mechanical decay, Fano interference, and bound states with energy in the continuum are ubiquitous phenomena in different areas of physics. Here we experimentally demonstrate that particle statistics strongly affects quantum mechanical decay in a multiparticle system. By considering propagation of two-photon states in engineered photonic lattices, we simulate quantum decay of two noninteracting particles in a multilevel Fano-Anderson model. Remarkably, when the system sustains a bound state in the continuum, fractional decay is observed for bosonic particles, but not for fermionic ones. Complete decay in the fermionic case arises because of the Pauli exclusion principle, which forbids the bound state to be occupied by the two fermions. Our experiment indicates that particle statistics can tune many-body quantum decay from fractional to complete.

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  • Received 6 October 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.090201

© 2015 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Andrea Crespi1, Linda Sansoni2,*, Giuseppe Della Valle3,1, Alessio Ciamei2, Roberta Ramponi1,3, Fabio Sciarrino2,†, Paolo Mataloni2, Stefano Longhi3,1,‡, and Roberto Osellame1,3,§

  • 1Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, I-20133 Milano, Italy
  • 2Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, I-00185 Roma, Italy
  • 3Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, I-20133 Milano, Italy

  • *Current affiliation: Integrated Quantum Optics, University of Paderborn, Warburger Strasse 100, 33098 Paderborn, Germany
  • fabio.sciarrino@uniroma1.it
  • stefano.longhi@polimi.it
  • §roberto.osellame@ifn.cnr.it

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Issue

Vol. 114, Iss. 9 — 6 March 2015

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