Dualism in Entanglement and Testing Quantum to Classical Transition of Identicity

Abstract

We show a hitherto unexplored consequence of the property of identicity in quantum mechanics. If two identical objects, distinguished by a dynamical variable A, are in certain entangled states of another dynamical variable B, then, for such states, they are also entangled in variable A when distinguished from each other by variable B. This dualism is independent of quantum statistics. Departures from identicity of the objects due to arbitrarily small differences in their innate attributes destroy this dualism. A system independent scheme to test the dualism is formulated which is readily realizable with photons. This scheme can be performed without requiring the entangled objects to be brought together. Thus whether two macro-systems behave as quantum identical objects can be probed without the complications of scattering. Such a study would complement the program of testing the validity of quantum superposition principle in the macro-domain which has stimulated considerable experimentation.