Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-shared-by-prelims-and-parts-a-and-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2016/s3/1/5/solution

To distinguish equal transverse bins across width , . Six bits gives one-nanometre pixels; ten gives 0.0625 nm, below the helium wavelength. In the stipulated fixed-energy freely propagating beam, the latter entails transverse diffraction momenta comparable to or exceeding the available total momentum and lies outside the paraxial aperture model. Six-bit localization is less demanding, although fine detector resolution and losses remain practical constraints. This is not a universal theorem that an atom can carry at most six bits in every encoding: accessible modes, energy, aperture, measurements and success probabilities define the channel.

New to topics? Read the docs here!