In a scattering reaction, there are many possible final states for the products,

Question

In a scattering reaction, there are many possible final states for the products, each with different production rates.

Question: Is there a way in which we could in general supress certain rates of products of the reaction and enhance others? can we use coherence and interference of the initial states to modulate such rates?

As an application of such possibility, i'm wondering if we could enhance the production rate of antimatter (for the purpose of the question, let's consider antihydrogen) by a few orders of magnitude by such manipulations?

Explanation / Answer

If I understand your question correctly, you wish to use quantum interference to observe phenomena that otherwise have a low probability of occurring? If so, exploiting this is well known and well established in quantum optics. For example, take phenomena that occur with coherently prepared atomic systems, such as Lasing without inversion, Electromagnetically Induced Transparency, Light storage, Coherent population trapping etc.

In these phenomena, you indirectly control the probability amplitudes experimentally by tuning laser parameters (frequency, intensity) or atomic parameters (suppress Zeeman levels by magnetic shielding, increase atomic density etc).

There are also a whole slew of optical interference based schemes that are used to generate entangled states of light (or matter!).

I am too lazy to provide references right now. Just woke up. :)

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