Phase shifting of an interferometer using nonlocal quantum-state correlations

Abstract

We describe an experiment where the phase and amplitude of the interference pattern of light going through an interferometer was varied by doing operations on quantum-correlated light that did not go through the interferometer. This was accomplished by sending a pair of polarization-entangled photons in separate directions, one to an interferometer and the other one to a phase shifter, in principle in a remote location. The interferometer was set up to put the state of the pair in a superposition of maximally entangled states. The phase shifter inserted a phase between the product-state components that made up each entangled state. Polarizers located before the detectors projected the quantum state of the light. As a result, the phase and amplitude of the interference pattern were varied by changing the settings of the phase shifter and polarizer in the path of the photon in the remote location.