Seeing is Believing : Illuminate Quantum Phenomena with a Momentum Microscope

Osian Wolley, Thomas Gregory, Sebastian M. J. Beer +2 more

Ghenadie N. Mardari, Guillaume Adenier, Andrei Yu. Khrennikov +3 more

Quantum Mechanics must satisfy two conditions before it can be validated as complete. Firstly, there should be some compelling reason to believe that no microscopic phenomena are possible beyond the scope of the theory. Secondly, there should be a similar reason to believe that no macroscopic observations depend on the existence of additional pre‐quantum properties. Yet, the Universe appears to have some verifiable properties, which prevent the fulfillment of the second condition.

Hugo Defienne, Warwick P. Bowen, Maria V. Chekhova +5 more

Pierre Meystre

Brian Gerard Williams

Compton scattering figures prominently in the introductory chapters of textbooks on quantum mechanics as providing evidence for the ‘‘particulate’’ nature of light. It also arises in discussions of ‘‘Heisenberg’s microscope,’’ in which it is shown that attempts to measure the position and the momentum of an electron simultaneously are governed by the uncertainty principle. However, recent developments in Compton scattering have not yet found their way into the textbooks. In this paper we review the history of the Compton effect and describe briefly some of the modern developments in x-ray and electron Compton scattering and their application to the study of electron momentum densities which we believe to have a pedagogical value. Finally, we return to Heisenberg’s microscope, and show how it has now become a reality. A complete analysis for all scattering angles depends crucially on the different expressions for the resolution and the depth of focus of the microscope.