Experimental realization of Wheeler's delayed-choice experiment with dual selections
Abstract
Wheeler's delayed-choice experiment demonstrates wave-particle duality of particles using different experimental configurations of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. In a quantum version of this experiment, the wave-particle behavior of photons can be observed by controlling presence or absence of the second beam splitter. Here, we implement a delayed-choice experiment with dual selections based on entangled photons, experimentally controlling both of two beam splitters in the Mach-Zehnder interferometer, where the presence and absence of the second beam splitter are simultaneously controlled through path encoding. Our experiment reveals the wave-particle behavior of single photons under different configurations of two beam splitters. We further discuss the scenario when two beam splitters are in a quantum superposition of being present and absent, photons will be in a wave-particle quantum superposition state.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{yang2026experimental,
title = {{Experimental realization of Wheeler's delayed-choice experiment with dual selections}},
author = {Xiaowan Yang and Xinglei Yu and Liangsheng Li and Xinzhi Zhao and Tianle Zheng and Chengjie Zhang and Chuan-Feng Li and Guang-Can Guo},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.01832},
eprint = {2610.01832},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.01832},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Experimental realization of Wheeler's delayed-choice experiment with dual selections
AU - Xiaowan Yang
AU - Xinglei Yu
AU - Liangsheng Li
AU - Xinzhi Zhao
AU - Tianle Zheng
AU - Chengjie Zhang
AU - Chuan-Feng Li
AU - Guang-Can Guo
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.01832
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.01832
AB - Wheeler's delayed-choice experiment demonstrates wave-particle duality of particles using different experimental configurations of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. In a quantum version of this experiment, the wave-particle behavior of photons can be observed by controlling presence or absence of the second beam splitter. Here, we implement a delayed-choice experiment with dual selections based on entangled photons, experimentally controlling both of two beam splitters in the Mach-Zehnder interferometer, where the presence and absence of the second beam splitter are simultaneously controlled through path encoding. Our experiment reveals the wave-particle behavior of single photons under different configurations of two beam splitters. We further discuss the scenario when two beam splitters are in a quantum superposition of being present and absent, photons will be in a wave-particle quantum superposition state.
ER -