A quantum mechanical description of electromagnetic and atom Mach-Zehnder interferometers

A quantum mechanical description of a non-absorbing electromagnetic beam splitter (BS) transformation is given by the use of momentum creation operators, which also include momentum shift operators operating on the BS. This BS transformation is used for analyzing photon-statistics effects in the electromagnetic Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Also the relation between this BS transformation and Welcher-Weg measurements is discussed. The analogy between electromagnetic and atom interferometers is described with an emphasis on the use of high-order correlation functions. The entanglement between the interfering beams in these interferometers and the BS is taken into account in our analysis for treating special effects. (Author)