Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 3, 2025

09:23
Quantum State Engineering of Light with Continuous-wave Optical Parametric Oscillators
Published on: May 30, 2014
14.8K
Tomographic Description of a Quantum Wave Packet in an Accelerated Frame
Sergio De Nicola1,2, Renato Fedele1,3, Dušan Jovanović4
1Dipartimento di Fisica "E. Pancini", Universitá di Napoli Federico II, Complesso Universitario di M.S. Angelo, 80126 Napoli, Italy.
Entropy (Basel, Switzerland)
|June 2, 2021
Summary
Quantum wave packet tomography in accelerated frames reveals that uncertainties remain constant, unaffected by acceleration. The wave packet
Area of Science:
- Quantum mechanics
- Quantum optics
Background:
- Studying quantum particle behavior in non-inertial (accelerated) reference frames is crucial for understanding fundamental physics.
- Tomography provides a powerful tool for reconstructing quantum states and their evolution.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the quantum tomography of a single quantum particle (wave packet) in an accelerated reference frame.
- To analyze the effects of uniform acceleration on wave packet properties, including uncertainties and evolution.
Main Methods:
- Formulating the Schrödinger equation in a time-dependent, uniformly accelerated reference frame.
- Reducing the problem to an equivalent inertial frame with a time-dependent force.
- Employing the Radon transform to determine the quantum tomogram.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated a Gaussian wave packet solution where position and momentum uncertainties are invariant under uniform acceleration.
- Confirmed that the uncertainty product remains constant, analogous to force-free motion.
- Observed wave packet centroid motion following classical Newton's laws and diffraction spread in configuration space but not momentum space.
Conclusions:
- Quantum wave packet tomography in accelerated frames provides insights into the behavior of quantum systems under non-inertial conditions.
- The study confirms the robustness of quantum uncertainties against uniform acceleration.
- Characterized wave packet evolution using optical and symplectic tomograms in the accelerated frame.
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