1. Quantum Backflow States from Eigenstates of the Regularized Current Operator
- Author
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Halliwell, J. J., Gillman, E., Lennon, O., Patel, M., and Ramirez, I.
- Subjects
Quantum Physics - Abstract
We present an exhaustive class of states with quantum backflow -- the phenomenon in which a state consisting entirely of positive momenta may have negative current and the probability flows in the opposite direction to the momentum. They are characterized by a general function of momenta subject to very weak conditions. Such a family of states is of interest in the light of a recent experimental proposal to measure backflow. We find one particularly simple state which has surprisingly large backflow -- about 41 percent of the lower bound on flux derived by Bracken and Melloy. We study the eigenstates of a regularized current operator and we show how some of these states, in a certain limit, lead to our class of backflow states. This limit also clarifies the correspondence between the spectrum of the regularized current operator, which has just two non-zero eigenvalues in our chosen regularization, and the usual current operator., Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures
- Published
- 2013
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