Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 200401 (2004) [4 pages]Correlations in Atomic Systems: Diagnosing Coherent SuperpositionsReceived 29 December 2003; published 17 May 2004 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. © 2004 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.200401
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.200401
PACS:
03.65.Ta
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