Analysis of wave packet interference pattern in Young experiment

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.W.S. Chandana, Withana P. Siripala, N. de Silva

Daniel F. V. James, E. Wolf

Panayiotis Nicos Kaloyerou

Abstract The 2011 experiment by Kocsis et al., using the weak measurement protocol, confirmed the distinctive particle trajectory pattern given by the Bohm-de Broglie causal interpretation model of the quantum version of Young's two-slit experiment. The model uses Gaussian wave-packets. Given that the original (classical) Young's two-slit experiment was modelled by Fresnel in terms of Huygens' spherical waves, we thought it would be interesting to test whether a spherical wave model of the quantum Young's two-slit experiment would yield a similar description, in particular, whether or not the distinctive particle trajectory pattern confirmed by experiment would be reproduced. PACS NO. 03.65.-w

L. H. Wei

Michael W. Noel, Carlos R. Stroud

An experiment is described which is an analog of Young's double-slit interferometer using an atomic electron instead of light. Two phase-coherent laser pulses are used to excite a single electron into a state of the form of a pair of Rydberg wave packets that are initially on opposite sides of the orbit. The two wave packets propagate and spread until they completely overlap, then a third phase-coherent laser pulse probes the resulting fringe pattern. The relative phase of the two wave packets is varied so that the interference produces a single localized electron wave packet on one side of the orbit or the other.