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Progress of Theoretical Physics

Complementarity in the Double-Slit Experiment Revisited

Hiromichi Nakazato

Published Jun 1, 1991• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Einstein's version of the double-slit interferometer is reexamined by taking into account possible degrees of freedom of the detector. This can be considered as a natural generalization of an earlier attempt by Wooters and Zurek, however, it is found that in this approach a new element which is directly related to the uncertainties of physical variables appears and that it affects considerably the visibility of the interference pattern. Thi fact turns out to be a quantitative realization of the complementarity principle in quantum mechanics.

DOI
10.1143/ptp.85.1177

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Einstein's version of the double-slit interferometer is reexamined by taking into account possible degrees of freedom of the detector. This can be considered as a natural generalization of an earlier attempt by Wooters and Zurek, however, it is found that in this approach a new element which is directly related to the uncertainties of physical variables appears and that it affects considerably the visibility of the interference pattern. Thi fact turns out to be a quantitative realization of the complementarity principle in quantum mechanics.
A detailed analysis of Einstein's version of the double-slit experiment, in which one tries to observe both wave and particle properties of light, is performed. Quantum nonseparability appears in the derivation of the interference pattern, which proves to be surprisingly sharp even when the trajectories of the photons have been determined with fairly high accuracy. An information-theoretic approach to this problem leads to a quantitative formulation of Bohr's complementarity principle for the case of the double-slit experiment. A practically realizable version of this experiment, to which the above analysis applies, is proposed.
Abstract It is argued that two distinct types of complementarity are implied in Bohr's complementarity principle. While in the case of complementary variables it is the quantum mechanical uncertainty relation which is at work, the collapse hypothesis ensures this exclusiveness in the so-called wave-particle complementarity experiments. In particular it is shown that the conventional analysis of the double slit experiment which invokes the uncertainty principle to explain the absence of the simultaneous knowledge of the which-slit information and the interference pattern is incorrect and implies consequences that are quantum mechanically inconsistent.
A model of the Einstein–Bohr recoiling slit experiment is formulated in a fully quantum theoretical setting. In this model, the state and dynamics of a movable wall that has two slits in it, as well as the state of a particle incoming to the two slits, are described by quantum mechanics. Using this model, we analyzed complementarity between exhibiting an interference pattern and distinguishing the particle path. Comparing the Kennard–Robertson type and the Ozawa-type uncertainty relations, we conclude that the uncertainty relation involved in the double-slit experiment is not the Ozawa-type uncertainty relation but the Kennard-type uncertainty relation of the position and the momentum of the double-slit wall. A possible experiment to test the complementarity relation is suggested. It is also argued that various phenomena which occur at the interface of a quantum system and a classical system, including distinguishability, interference, decoherence, quantum eraser, and weak value, can be understood as aspects of entanglement. Quanta 2015; 4: 1–9.
Complementarity lies at the heart of conceptual foundation of orthodox quantum mechanics. The wave-particle duality makes it impossible to tell which slit each particle passes through and still observe an interference pattern in a Young's double-slit experiment. In this paper, this duality is appraised under the standard formulation of quantum mechanics for atom interferometers. It is found that the internal freedoms like electronic states of an atom can be used to detect the which-path information of each atom while uphold the interference pattern of atoms when the center-of-mass motion of atoms is detected.
As per Einstein's design, particles are introduced into the double-slit experiment through a small hole in a plate which can either move up and down (and its momentum can be measured) or be stopped (and its position can be measured). Suppose one measures the position of the plate and this act verifies the statement that the interference pattern is observed in the experiment. However, if it is possible to think about the outcome that one would have obtained if one had measured plate's momentum instead of its position, then it is possible to consider, together with the aforesaid statement, another statement that each particle passes through either slit of the double-slit screen. Hence, the proposition affirming the wave-like behavior and the proposition affirming the particle-like behavior might be true together, which would imply that Bohr's complementarity principle is incorrect. The analysis of Einstein's design and ways to refute it based on an approach that uses exclusively assignments of the truth values to experimental propositions is presented in this paper.