May 29, 2015
SEEING IS BEING:
Do atoms going through a double slit 'know' if they are being observed? (Tim Wogan, May 26, 2015, Physics World)
Does a massive quantum particle - such as an atom - in a double-slit experiment behave differently depending on when it is observed? John Wheeler's famous "delayed choice" Gedankenexperiment asked this question in 1978, and the answer has now been experimentally realized with massive particles for the first time. The result demonstrates that it does not make sense to decide whether a massive particle can be described by its wave or particle behaviour until a measurement has been made. [...]Indeed, the results of both Truscott and Aspect's experiments shows that a particle's wave or particle nature is most likely undefined until a measurement is made.
Posted by Orrin Judd at May 29, 2015 9:22 AM
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