The effects of non-Gaussian wave packets on double slit interference patterns

Antonio Zecca A

Helmut Kaiser, S. A. Werner, R. Clothier +2 more

Antonio Zecca A, Gruppo Nazionale

The diffraction pattern by double slit is studied by incoming Gaus-sian wave packet subjected to scattering interaction with the wall and a truncation assumption when crossing the slits. Explicit results are valid for sufficiently smooth scattering amplitude. They concern large and narrow aperture of the incoming wave packet. For wave packet localized in spatial region smaller then the aperture of the slits there is no diffraction and the particle behaves classically. For wave packet peaked in the momentum probability distribution there are maxima, superimposed to the canonical diffraction pattern, in correspondence to the edges of the slits. Previous similar results are generalized and improved.

Jau Tang, Zhibin Hu

For centuries Young’s double-slit interference continues to be a hot discussion subject about whether light is waves or particles. This work unravels the self-interference parados, and sheds light on such a concept that assumes a photon can split, self-interfere, and recombine. This work elucidates how coherent photons from a laser source could produce a double-slit interference pattern without the hypothesis of unphysical splitting and recombination of a single photon. Unlike the conventional single wave-function description for the whole ensemble of particles, we develop a pilot-wave trajectory approach to track every photon’s wave-packet propagation and calculate the evolution of the interference intensity in time. We demonstrate how wave packets and phase coherence affect the interference pattern. To resolve the century-old self-interference paradox, we show that such an hypothesis is unnecessary, and the illusion is due to the long coherence length of laser photons and overlaps of delocalized light wave packets.

A. Zecca

Stefan Bittner, Barbara Dietz, M. Miski-Oglu +3 more

Single and double-slit experiments are performed with two microwave billiards with the shapes of a rectangle and a quarter stadium, respectively. The classical dynamics of the former is regular, whereas that of the latter is chaotic. Microwaves can leave the billiards via slits in the boundary, forming interference patterns on a screen. The aim is to determine the effect of the billiard dynamics on their structure. For this the development of a method for the construction of a directed wave packet by means of an array of multiple antennas was crucial. The interference patterns show a sensitive dependence not only on the billiard dynamics but also on the initial position and direction of the wave packet.