It’s time for the latest update to confirm things we already knew, and as always, it’s much more interesting than you can expect.
Simply put, scientists have performed a version of very advanced quantum physics experiments. More than two centuries ago, the “double slit” experiment has shown powerfully that light photons can behave like particles or waves. This latest embodiment increases the experiment as much as possible, causing interaction to take place at the nuclear level between individual quantum particles.
As expected, this “idealized” version of the experiment showed the same result as the historical version. But just as she did it, it can still give insight into the basics of quantum mechanics.
The double slit experiment photographed photons on a screen with two cracks in it, and the photon detector is built behind the back. If the light was a particle, we hope to see two bright places where the particles pass through these two cracks and hit the detector; If it were a wave, we hope to have a more sophisticated tape model, as the two new waves created on the far side of the cracks spread and interfere with each other.
Double sketch of a slit
This sketch shows the main setup of the double slit experiment. Credit: Roger Bach
The experiment has shown that photons can be encouraged to behave like particles or waves, depending on the level of “observation”. This means that if the physicists would keep the photons completely secluded from the outside world throughout the experiment, they would behave like a wave. It remains true, even if you shoot photons one by one; This means that every wave -like photon behaves as if it were in several places at the same time, passing through both cracks and disturbing itself;
In this context, “observation” is any interaction of photon, as this interaction can only occur if the so -called status superposition collapses into one particle with a specific location. If the experiment allows for this interaction, then the need for a photon to be a consistent particle will cause the overall two hotpot result.
In general, quantum physics says that the only way to find out about a photon is to observe that the only way to watch the photon is to interact with it and that the only ways to interact with the photon will necessarily collapse that photon into a wave -like behavior to a particle.
Einstein loudly skeptical about quantum physics, but had to recognize the validity of these results. In an attempt to find ways to continue disbelief with the results, he loudly made a forecast that challenged the principle above (that the photon’s observation was impossible in the form of his own wave). He said it should be possible to perform a double slit experiment that could figure out the information about the photons passing through the slit as waves, looking at atoms on both sides of the slit. Along the way, he called it “rust” atoms.
For Einstein, if these bustle effects could be seen, it would mean that the photon was in a certain place and crossed only one of two cracks, but it should still cause a wave -type interference pattern on the other side. He proved that there were several ways to wrong, and this study was only the latest.
Albert Einstein’s pace in front of the board.
Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
The “cracks” used here were the size of one atom – it was difficult to do on its own – and the light source was extremely weak. At the same time, these two elements ensured that only single photons would ever pass through these atomically small openings.
As Einstein predicted, photons cause the observed interference of atoms around the edge of this small opening, “bustling” individual quantum particles that create them. However, unlike Einstein’s expectations, and according to the quantum mechanics, the researchers found that when the photon thus disrupted the quantum particle, the wave line model decreased.
Researchers call it a real world “Gedanne’s experiment” or thought experiment because it occupies the logic of a double slit, how much it could have ever happened. These exceptional quantum interactions are one of the least powerful observations that we could realistically imagine, so if even they create an observer, that effect cannot be doubted.
It is always interesting to see how far physicists will go to the depths of their own theories – and to prove again that Einstein is mistaken in quantum physics.