Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: Fluid_thinker on 17/07/2008 11:02:06
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the conventional test is a 2 slit light experiment to get the interference pattern of a wave and test of superposition for the photon particle
what happens with 3 slits or more when you fire a single photon?
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If the slits are close enough (as with the 2 slit experiment) you get superposition from all three slits. The pattern is more complicated but the principle is the same. Where the waves can reinforce you get a brighter image, where they cancel a dimmer image. It does not matter that you arrange to have a low photon density so that the set-up only has one photon in transit at any one time, it is the probability amplitudes that interfere. You can substitute "more accumulated hits" for the word "brighter".
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There is nothing magic about the two slits experiment. Diffraction happens all the time with all shapes and sizes of obstacles and, when you get down to individual quanta, you get a probability distribution in just the same way.
Multiple slits just give a sharper pattern which allows you get better separation of wavelengths - it gives you a diffraction grating when used with large numbers of quanta (called a beam of light).