Friday, 27 May 2016

quantum mechanics - Slit screen and wave-particle duality



In a double-slit experiment, interference patterns are shown when light passes through the slits and illuminate the screen. So the question is, if one shoots a single photon, does the screen show interference pattern? Or does the screen show only one location that the single photon particle is at?



Answer



The answer is yes to both questions: yes, the screen does show one location for one particle and yes, the accumulated picture after repeating the experiment many, many times does show the interference pattern.


There is a set of beautiful pictures and a video of the double slit experiment in one-particle-per-time mode that can be found here (the experiment is with electron but conceptually there is no difference).


No comments:

Post a Comment

Understanding Stagnation point in pitot fluid

What is stagnation point in fluid mechanics. At the open end of the pitot tube the velocity of the fluid becomes zero.But that should result...