On the significance of a recent experiment demonstrating quantum interference in time

Abstract

I comment on the interpretation of a recent experiment showing quantum interference in time. It is pointed out that the standard nonrelativistic quantum theory, used by the authors in their analysis, cannot account for the results found, and therefore that this experiment has fundamental importance beyond the technical advances it represents. Some theoretical structures which consider the time as an observable, and thus could, in principle, have the required coherence in time, are discussed briefly, and the application of Floquet theory and the manifestly covariant quantum theory of Stueckelberg are treated in some detail. In particular, the latter is shown to account for the results in a simple and consistent way.