INTERFERENCE IN DIELECTRICS AND PSEUDO-MEASUREMENTS

Inserting a lossy dielectric into one arm of an interference experimen t acts in many ways like a measurement. If two entangled photons are p assed through the interfereometer, a certain amount of information is gained about which path they took, and the interference pattern in a c oincidence count measurement is suppressed. However, by inserting a se cond dielectric into the other arm of the interferometer, one can rest ore the interference pattern. Two of these pseudo-measurements can thu s cancel each other out. This is somewhat analogous to the proposed qu antum eraser experiments.