Contractive states of a free atom

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A position-measurement scheme is discussed which prepares an atom in a contractive state. Two operating regimes are analyzed. In the first, the quadratic form of the interaction potential is responsible for the focusing. In the second regime the potential varies approximately linearly with position, and the focusing results from the measurement itself. In this second regime the scheme provides a very close realization of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Gedankenexperiment, an analogy that allows some insight into the production of measurement-induced contractive states.