title: Correlations in atomic systems: diagnosing coherent superpositions.
abstract: While investigating quantum correlations in atomic systems, we note that single measurements contain information about these correlations. Using a simple model of measurement-analogous to the one used in quantum optics-we show how to extract higher-order correlation functions from individual "photographs" of the atomic sample. As a possible application, we apply the method to detect a subtle phase coherence in mesoscopic superpositions.
authors.affiliation: Center for Theoretical Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, al. Lotników 32/46, 02-668 Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Radka
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bach
authors.forename: Kazimierz
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rzazewski