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Tunneling assisted interference in double-well levitodynamics

Yue Ma, Endre Bokor, M. S. Kim
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⚡ Quantum Brief
A team led by Yue Ma, Endre Bokor, and M. S. Kim has demonstrated a unique quantum signature in levitated particles confined to double-well potentials. Their work reveals that quantum tunneling enables eigenstates to delocalize across wells, producing nonzero overlaps between adjacent states. This introduces low-frequency components into the mean particle position’s evolution, a feature absent in classical dynamics. By comparing quantum and classical behavior, they show the interference is distinctly quantum and detectable via average position oscillations, with spectral peaks tied to energy eigenvalue structures.
Why it matters

This result unifies two cornerstone quantum effects—tunneling and interference—in a single, experimentally accessible system, offering a new probe for quantum behavior in macroscopic levitated particles.

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Quantum Physics arXiv:2609.01700 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 1 Sep 2026] Title:Tunneling assisted interference in double-well levitodynamics Authors:Yue Ma, Endre Bokor, M. S. Kim View a PDF of the paper titled Tunneling assisted interference in double-well levitodynamics, by Yue Ma and 2 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Levitated particles trapped in double-well potentials provide a promising platform for exploring quantum dynamics beyond the harmonic regime. We show that such systems exhibit a distinctive quantum signature arising from tunneling-assisted interference. Unlike classical dynamics, where the two wells are disconnected, in the quantum case, quantum tunneling enables eigenstates to delocalize into the other well, creating nonzero overlaps between adjacent eigenstates that introduce low-frequency components into the evolution of the mean particle position. By comparing quantum and classical dynamics of particles in one-dimensional double-well potentials, we demonstrate that this interference is uniquely quantum and can be identified through the oscillation of the average position alone. We further relate the observed spectral peaks to the structure of the energy eigenvalues. The effect provides a promising probe of the quantum signature of levitated particle motion, and has fundamental importance as it predicts the demonstration of two major phenomena of quantum mechanics, quantum tunneling and quantum interference, at the same time and on the same system. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2609.01700 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2609.01700v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.01700 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Yue Ma [view email] [v1] Tue, 1 Sep 2026 17:07:46 UTC (122 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Tunneling assisted interference in double-well levitodynamics, by Yue Ma and 2 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-09 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)

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Source: arXiv Quantum Physics

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