Lan, Boon Leong | Search NASA

DOE OSTI2010

Newtonian And Special Relativistic Predictions For The Trajectory Of A Bouncing Ball

The dynamics of a bouncing ball is studied using Newtonian and special relativistic mechanics. An exact mapping describes the bouncing ball dynamics in each theory. We show that the trajectories predicted by the two theories from the same parameters and initial conditions for the ball bouncing at low speed can rapidly disagree completely. The bouncing ball system could be realized experimentally to test which of the two different predicted trajectories is correct.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2010

Intense nonclassical light: Controllable two-photon Talbot effect

We study the spatial interference pattern of two-photon correlation function for a coherently phased linear array of N emitters with a double-Raman scheme, each producing nonclassically correlated photon pairs. The N{sup 2} dependence in the two-photon correlation serves as a coherent amplification method for producing intense nonclassical light. The spatial distribution of the correlation can be controlled by lasers, and depends on the detection configuration. For two coincident detectors, the nonclassical correlation displays the spatial Talbot pattern, but modulated by quantum interference effect. The image revival distance is found to be twice the usual Talbot length. For symmetrically located detectors (X{sub 1}=-X{sub 2}), the correlation displays a distorted Talbot pattern with intricate features and lack of symmetry.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗