title: On the superposition principle in interference experiments.
abstract: The superposition principle is usually incorrectly applied in interference experiments. This has recently been investigated through numerics based on Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) methods as well as the Feynman path integral formalism. In the current work, we have derived an analytic formula for the Sorkin parameter which can be used to determine the deviation from the application of the principle. We have found excellent agreement between the analytic distribution and those that have been earlier estimated by numerical integration as well as resource intensive FDTD simulations. The analytic handle would be useful for comparing theory with future experiments. It is applicable both to physics based on classical wave equations as well as the non-relativistic Schrödinger equation.
authors.affiliation: Centre for High Energy Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.
authors.forename: Aninda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sinha
authors.affiliation: 1] Centre for High Energy Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India [2] Raman Research Institute, Sadashivanagar, Bangalore, India.
authors.forename: Aravind
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: H Vijay
authors.affiliation: 1] Raman Research Institute, Sadashivanagar, Bangalore, India [2] Institute for Quantum Computing, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Urbasi
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Sinha