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Hauptverfasser: Das, Siddhant, Deckert, Dirk-André, Kellers, Leopold, Krekels, Simon, Struyve, Ward
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2022
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.13362
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author Das, Siddhant
Deckert, Dirk-André
Kellers, Leopold
Krekels, Simon
Struyve, Ward
author_facet Das, Siddhant
Deckert, Dirk-André
Kellers, Leopold
Krekels, Simon
Struyve, Ward
contents The double-slit experiment is one of the quintessential quantum experiments. However, it tends to be overlooked that a theoretical account of this experiment requires the specification of the joint position and time distribution of detection at the screen, whose position marginal yields the famous interference pattern. The difficulty then arises what this distribution should be. While there exists a variety of proposals for a quantum mechanical time observable, there is no consensus about the right choice. Here, we consider Bohmian mechanics, which allows for a natural and practical approach to this problem. We simulate this distribution in the case of an initial Gaussian wave packet passing through a double-slit potential. We also consider a more challenging setup in which one of the slits is shut during flight. To experimentally probe the quantum nature of the time distribution, a sufficient longitudinal spread of the initial wave packet is required, which has not been achieved so far. Without sufficient spread, the temporal aspect of the distribution can be treated classically. We illustrate this for the case of the double-slit experiment with helium atoms by Kurtsiefer et al. [Nature 386, 150 (1997)], which reports the joint position and time distribution.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2211_13362
institution arXiv
publishDate 2022
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Double-slit experiment revisited
Das, Siddhant
Deckert, Dirk-André
Kellers, Leopold
Krekels, Simon
Struyve, Ward
Quantum Physics
Computational Physics
Popular Physics
The double-slit experiment is one of the quintessential quantum experiments. However, it tends to be overlooked that a theoretical account of this experiment requires the specification of the joint position and time distribution of detection at the screen, whose position marginal yields the famous interference pattern. The difficulty then arises what this distribution should be. While there exists a variety of proposals for a quantum mechanical time observable, there is no consensus about the right choice. Here, we consider Bohmian mechanics, which allows for a natural and practical approach to this problem. We simulate this distribution in the case of an initial Gaussian wave packet passing through a double-slit potential. We also consider a more challenging setup in which one of the slits is shut during flight. To experimentally probe the quantum nature of the time distribution, a sufficient longitudinal spread of the initial wave packet is required, which has not been achieved so far. Without sufficient spread, the temporal aspect of the distribution can be treated classically. We illustrate this for the case of the double-slit experiment with helium atoms by Kurtsiefer et al. [Nature 386, 150 (1997)], which reports the joint position and time distribution.
title Double-slit experiment revisited
topic Quantum Physics
Computational Physics
Popular Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.13362