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Classical Stückelberg interferometry of a nanomechanical two-mode system at room temperature

The transition from classical to quantum mechanics has intrigued scientists in the past and remains one of the most fundamental conceptual challenges in state-of-the-art physics. Beyond the quantum mechanical correspondence principle, quantum-classical analogies have attracted considerable interest. In this work, we present classical two-mode interference for a nanomechanical two-mode system, realizing classical Stückelberg interferometry. In the past, Stückelberg interferometry has been investigated exclusively in quantum mechanical two-level systems. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a classical analog of Stückelberg interferometry taking advantage of coherent energy exchange between two-strongly coupled, high quality factor nanomechanical resonator modes. Furthermore, we provide an exact theoretical solution for the double passage Stückelberg problem which reveals the analogy of the return probabilities in the quantum mechanical and the classical version of the problem. This result qualifies classical two-mode systems at large as a testbed for quantum mechanical interferometry.