3 ms·
If you fire a single particle between two slits repeatedly, the cumulative places it hits form a wave-like interference pattern, of course. If you fire a singl
by tetris11 2y ago
If you fire a single particle between two slits repeatedly, the cumulative places it hits form a wave-like interference pattern, of course.
If you fire a single particle between two slits just once and it still forms a wave-like interference pattern, then surely what is being observed is more than just a probability distribution?
- breck 2y ago> If you fire a single particle between two slits just once Can you ever be sure you only fired a single particle?
- itishappy 2y agoYup! Photons are tough, it's a lot easier with electrons.
- dahart 2y agoWhere did you read about a single particle forming an interference pattern? “The atoms themselves are only ever observed in a given experimental run as particles – just as quantum mechanics says they should be. The wavelike behaviour – which is to say, the smeared-out probability distribution – is reconstructed from many particle-like observations.”
- epgui 2y agoA single particle is never observed as a wave afaik (not my area of expertise).
- crazygringo 2y ago> just once and it still forms a wave-like interference pattern That's not a thing. There's no pattern to observe from a single particle. The situation you're describing doesn't exist. Wave behavior and interference patterns can only be observed in statistically significant collections of particle interactions. Not single interactions.
- itishappy 2y agoSomewhat reductive. Waves behave differently than classical particles, and we can measure this on the level of individual particles even though we can't image the full pattern with a single measurement. For example: a single particle can end up in the middle of a shadow, but this shouldn't be possible classically. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arago_spot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arago_spot
- l33tman 2y agoYou do have to assume at some point that if you fire individual electrons through the dual-slits and record their individual results, that the results are independent. If you can assume this, you're drawn to the current model which is that the electron is in a superposition (i.e. "interferes with itself") that when resolved gives the observed statistical outcome of your independent results. This seems also to be the simplest model (there has been 100 years of trying to find simpler models that reproduce these results).
- qsdf38100 2y agoIf you fire a single particle just once, you don’t get an interference pattern, right? You get a single impact.
- JoeAltmaier 2y agoWhat's the difference between that, and firing a singleton particles periodically? Shouldn't that just be a collection of 'single impacts'? Yet it isn't.
- itishappy 2y agoYou get both. You get a single impact in a location determined by the interference pattern.
- DavidHull 2y agoYes. The single particle interferes with itself. However the effect disappears if you measure which slit the particle went through.
- tetris11 2y agoAh, this is where I was tripping myself up. Thanks
- qsdf38100 2y agoAh, I see what you mean. Yes the sample you get comes from a distribution determined by the interference. My point was that 1 sample in isolation won’t give you information about the underlying distribution, except that it’s non zero at that point, maybe?