Framework Separates Dephasing From Decoherence in Matter-Wave Systems

Researchers from The Australian National University have developed a framework to isolate the causes of quantum decoherence in matter-wave Bell interferometers, a crucial step toward detecting new physics. The work establishes that evaluating the Bell correlation at zero interferometer path difference yields an exact, source-distribution-independent extraction of the Bell amplitude reduction. This source-independent measurement is significant because source statistics complicate the interpretation of results in these sensitive experiments. When extending the framework to atoms of different mass, the team found that known differential decoherence channels are negligible at current sensitivity, establishing a threshold for future experiments. This finding allows for dual-species…