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arXiv:quant-ph/0406002 · Annales de la fondation Louis de Broglie/Annales de la Fondation Louis de Broglie

Proposed experiment of which-way detection by longitudinal momentum transfer in Young's double slit experiment

Masanori Sato

Published Jun 1, 2004• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The momentum of a photon may reveal the answer to the "which way" problem of Young's double slit experiments. A photon passing through the boundary between two media, in which a photon travels at different velocities, undergoes a momentum change according to the law of conservation of momentum. The momentum of the photon is transferred locally to the medium, and the boundary between the media receives stress, which determines the photon trajectory. An experiment is performed using a crystal plate that can transform the stress to electric charge. We are able to detect the electric charge after the detection of the photon on the screen, and control the sensitivity of photon detection. By means of this proposed experiment it is determined whether or not an attempt to detect the "which way" of photon travel destroys the interference patterns.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.quant-ph/0406002

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The momentum of a photon may reveal the answer to the "which way" problem of Young's double slit experiments. A photon passing through the boundary between two media, in which a photon travels at different velocities, undergoes a momentum change according to the law of conservation of momentum. The momentum of the photon is transferred locally to the medium, and the boundary between the media receives stress, which determines the photon trajectory. An experiment is performed using a crystal plate that can transform the stress to electric charge. We are able to detect the electric charge after the detection of the photon on the screen, and control the sensitivity of photon detection. By means of this proposed experiment it is determined whether or not an attempt to detect the "which way" of photon travel destroys the interference patterns.
The momentum of a photon may reveal the answer to the "which way" problem of Young's double slit experiments. A photon passing through the boundary between two media, in which a photon travels at different velocities, undergoes a momentum change according to the law of conservation of momentum. The momentum of the photon is transferred locally to the medium, and the boundary between the media receives stress, which determines the photon trajectory. An experiment is performed using a crystal plate that can transform the stress to electric charge. We are able to detect the electric charge after the detection of the photon on the screen, and control the sensitivity of photon detection. By means of this proposed experiment it is determined whether or not an attempt to detect the "which way" of photon travel destroys the interference patterns.
Bohm’s variation of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen thought experiment may be used to reveal the path a photon travels in Young’s experiment without destroying the observed interference pattern. Photons emitted by a light-source with zero spin are incident on a screen with two narrow slits separated by a small distance, with antiparallel polarized photonic spin filters placed in front of both slits. It follows that the slit through which an incident photon passed to form an interference pattern can be determined by performing an intermediate delayed choice measurement. This experimental probe is ideal for penetrating the shroud of mystery surrounding the wave-particle duality exhibited by quantum phenomena.
Young's double slit experiment has often been used to illustrate the concept of complementarity in quantum mechanics. If information can in principle be obtained about the path of the photon, then the visibility of the interference fringes is reduced or even destroyed. This Gedanken experiment discussed by Bohr and Einstein can be realized when the slit is replaced by individual atoms sensitive to the transferred recoil momentum of a photon which "passes through the slit". Early pioneering experiments were done with trapped ions and atom pairs created via photo-dissociation. Recently, it became possible to perform interference experiments with single neutral atoms cooled to the absolute ground state of a harmonic oscillator potential. The slits are now single atoms representing a two-level system, and the excitation in the harmonic oscillator potential is the which-way marker. In this note, we analyze and generalize two recent experiments performed with single atoms and emphasize the different ways they record which-way information.
We report a two-photon double-slit interference experiment. Two correlated photons, generated by spontaneous parametric downconversion and traveling in different directions, are made to pass through a double slit in such a way that the path of one photon can be identified with that of the other photon. No single-photon interference pattern is observed even if the path is not actually identified, but a spatial interference pattern appears in the joint detection counting rates of the photon pairs. It can easily be shown that these nonlocal phenomena cannot be exhibited by any kind of classical field.
Young’s double slit experiments have been interpretated by the optical wave theory. The observation of the wave behavior of the light near the detecting screen has long history. Recently we have shown the particle nature of the light near the detecting screen (the far field) in the wave experiments. In this article, we place two shields near the double slit to explore the nature of light. The experiment shows that, near the double slit, the light behaves as photons, propagates along the straight-line trajectories. The portion of the light, which directly passing through the channel formed by Shield-1 and Shield-2, produces the interference pattern at the central portion of the pattern. While the portions of the light, which are reflected multi-times by Shield-1 and Shield-2 respectively, produce the left pattern and the right pattern at the left-side and the right-side of the interference pattern respectively. The left pattern and the right pattern are not interference pattern. This novel double slit experiments provide comprehensive phenomena for further developing the theory to interpret the experiments.
Young’s double slit experiments have been interpretated by the optical wave theory. The observation of the wave behavior of the light near the detecting screen has long history. Recently we have shown the particle nature of the light near the detecting screen (the far field) in the wave experiments. In this article, we place two shields near the double slit to explore the nature of light. The experiment shows that, near the double slit, the light behaves as photons, propagates along the straight-line trajectories. The portion of the light, which directly passing through the channel formed by Shield-1 and Shield-2, produces the interference pattern at the central portion of the pattern. While the portions of the light, which are reflected multi-times by Shield-1 and Shield-2 respectively, produce the left pattern and the right pattern at the left-side and the right-side of the interference pattern respectively. The left pattern and the right pattern are not interference pattern. This novel double slit experiments provide comprehensive phenomena for further developing the theory to interpret the experiments.