Threshold in quantum correlated interference for a particle interacting with two scatterers

Abstract

Correlated interference is calculated for a microscopic particle retro-reflecting from two spatially separated scatterers that are free to move, all three of which are treated as quantum bodies: the positions of the particle traversing this one-dimensional interferometer and those of the interferometer components are all uncertain. Interference in a measurement of only the particle is shown to disappear for microscopic yet appear for mesoscopic scatterers, contrary to that of a quantum-classical transition. A measurement of this threshold can verify quantum correlations in many-body systems by measuring only the retro-reflected microscopic particle. The decoherence of a mesoscopic scatterer is determined by this threshold without it having to traverse slits or beamsplitters.