Coherently induced quantum correlation in a delayed-choice scheme

Abstract: Quantum entanglement is known as a unique quantum feature that cannot be obtained by classical physics. Over the last several decades, however, such an understanding on quantum entanglement might have confined us in a limited world of weird quantum mechanics. Unlike a single photon, a definite phase relation between paired photons is the key to understanding quantum features. Recently, an intuitive approach to the otherwise mysterious quantum features has emerged and shined a light on coherence manipulations of product-basis superposition via selective measurements. Here, a coherence manipulation is presented to excite polarization-path correlation using Poisson-distributed coherent photons for a classically excited joint-phase relation of independent local parameters. For this, linear optics is used for the preparation of the polarization-basis randomness, and a gated heterodyne detection technique is adopted for the selective measurement of polarization bases. As a result, the nonlocal quantum feature is now coherently understood in a deterministic way.