- #1
boxfullofvacuumtubes
- 20
- 2
Suppose you prepare two polarization-entangled horizontally polarized photons.
Scenario 1:
After the first photon passes through a linear polarizer oriented at 45 degrees, it will have later a 50% probability of being measured as horizontally polarized and 50% as vertically polarized. The second photon will retain the 100% probability of being measured as horizontally polarized.
What happens to entanglement in this case?
Are the two photons still entangled, but the correlation is now between the first photon having the 45-degree polarization and the second photon having the horizontal polarization? Would such a state be described as ## \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(\left|H,H\right> + \left|V,H\right>\right) ##?
Or, did the 45-degree polarizer break the initial entanglement by measurement of the first photon's polarization?
Scenario 2:
Suppose the first photon does not pass through a linear polarizer oriented at 45 degrees, but is absorbed by the polarizer instead (which can happen with a 50% chance for LHP). What happens to entanglement? Was the entanglement between the two photons simply destroyed as the first photons was absorbed? Or, is the second photon now entangled with the polarizer? Or... something else?
Scenario 1:
After the first photon passes through a linear polarizer oriented at 45 degrees, it will have later a 50% probability of being measured as horizontally polarized and 50% as vertically polarized. The second photon will retain the 100% probability of being measured as horizontally polarized.
What happens to entanglement in this case?
Are the two photons still entangled, but the correlation is now between the first photon having the 45-degree polarization and the second photon having the horizontal polarization? Would such a state be described as ## \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(\left|H,H\right> + \left|V,H\right>\right) ##?
Or, did the 45-degree polarizer break the initial entanglement by measurement of the first photon's polarization?
Scenario 2:
Suppose the first photon does not pass through a linear polarizer oriented at 45 degrees, but is absorbed by the polarizer instead (which can happen with a 50% chance for LHP). What happens to entanglement? Was the entanglement between the two photons simply destroyed as the first photons was absorbed? Or, is the second photon now entangled with the polarizer? Or... something else?