TY  - JOUR
AU  - Willsch, Madita
AU  - Willsch, Dennis
AU  - Michielsen, Kristel
AU  - Jin, Fengping
AU  - Denkmayr, Tobias
AU  - Sponar, Stephan
AU  - Hasegawa, Yuji
AU  - De Raedt, Hans
TI  - Long-Time Correlations in Single-Neutron Interferometry Data
JO  - Journal of the Physical Society of Japan
VL  - 89
IS  - 6
SN  - 1347-4073
CY  - Tokyo
PB  - The Physical Society of Japan
M1  - FZJ-2020-02170
SP  - 064005 -
PY  - 2020
AB  - We present a detailed analysis of the time series of time-stamped neutron counts obtained by single-neutron interferometry. The neutron counting statistics display the usual Poissonian behavior, but the variance of the neutron counts does not. Instead, the variance is found to exhibit a dependence on the phase-shifter setting which can be explained by a probabilistic model that accounts for fluctuations of the phase shift. The time series of the detection events exhibit long-time correlations with amplitudes that also depend on the phase-shifter setting. These correlations appear as damped oscillations with a period of about 2.8 s. By simulation, we show that the correlations of the time differences observed in the experiment can be reproduced by assuming that, for a fixed setting of the phase shifter, the phase shift experienced by the neutrons varies periodically in time with a period of 2.8 s. The same simulations also reproduce the behavior of the variance. Our analysis of the experimental data suggests that time-stamped data of single-particle interference experiments may exhibit transient features that require a description in terms of non-stationary processes, going beyond the standard quantum model of independent random events.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000537748100011
DO  - DOI:10.7566/JPSJ.89.064005
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/877400
ER  -