Abstract We investigate some of the properties of the mapping from wave-functions to single particle densities, partially answering an open question posed by E. H. Lieb in 1983.
Abstract An attempt is made to substantiate the absence of wave properties for a single electron. What is commonly called the corpuscular-wave duality or the wave properties of matter, which appear in the form of a diffraction pattern on the target of certain kind, is a result of the obligatory involvement of a large number of electrons in the diffraction process. In the context of quantum mechanics, a form of the diffraction pattern can be predicted using the rule of adding probability amplitudes, which, in the simplest case, are solutions to the Schrödinger equation for free particles. Therefore, the answer to the question posed in the title sounds something like this: a single electron has no wave properties; however, they become apparent whenever there are many electrons and a suitable target.
In the past few years experimenters have learned how to determine the complete quantum state of an ensemble of particles or fields which have been prepared according to some unknown procedure. Through these experiments they have answered a question posed by W. Pauli in the 1930s. The methods used involve measuring statistical distributions of a well chosen set of physical observables and using a tomographic inversion algorithm to reconstruct the Wigner function and its corresponding wave function or density matrix. Recontructions have been successfully carried out in atomic, molecular, and optical physics. The development of these procedures helps to firm up the interpretation of the Schrodinger wave function.
In the past few years experimenters have learned how to determine the complete quantum state of an ensemble of particles or fields which have been prepared according to some unknown procedure. Through these experiments they have answered a question posed by W. Pauli in the 1930s. The methods used involve measuring statistical distributions of a well chosen set of physical observables and using a tomographic inversion algorithm to reconstruct the Wigner function and its corresponding wave function or density matrix. Recontructions have been successfully carried out in atomic, molecular, and optical physics. The development of these procedures helps to firm up the interpretation of the Schrodinger wave function.