As long as the wires interact with the photons, the information is
destroyed. I made the nonzero width reality comment to further build up
the case. And you are right, a single wire should also do the trick.
A better (and far simpler) way to challenge complementarity would be to
use a low-intensity interferogram in a photographic film or CCD. At
first the photons being detected are few so the shot (particle-like)
aspect is more obvious. As more photons are integrated, the classical
interference pattern is observed. Can there be a transition region where
both aspects are observable?
-----Original Message-----
From: Russell Standish [mailto:R.Standish.domain.name.hidden]
Sent: Friday, August 13, 2004 11:29 PM
To: Fred Chen
Cc: 'Everything List'
Subject: Re: Quantum Rebel
It has nothing whatsoever to do with finite width of the absorber.
Adding an infinitesimally thin wire into the experiment is sufficient to
destroy "which way" information.
On Fri, Aug 13, 2004 at 11:24:06PM -0700, Fred Chen wrote:
> Yes I think this is correct.
>
> The theoretical zero amplitude region in the interference plane of the
> wires is also of zero width, while on the other hand the wires are
> obviously finite width. The wires do interact with the photons in
> reality, or equivalently, diffract the waves coming from the slits. So
> in the end each detector will detect photons coming from both slits.
> If you covered up one of the slits, but left the wires in place, both
> detectors will detect photons originating from the slit.
>
> So complementarity (if defined as exclusive particle/wave observation)
> has not been disproven. The particle-tracking information from each
> slit is destroyed by interaction with the wires.
>
> Fred
>
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Received on Sat Aug 14 2004 - 02:50:55 PDT