Re: Afshar's experiment

From: Oz (oz_at_farmeroz.port995.com)
Date: 07/29/04 

Date: 29 Jul 2004 05:59:17 -0400

pseudospin <mrh@thsun1.ph.bham.ac.uk> writes

>Er no, unfortunately. Afshar is thinking too classically. With both
>pinholes open the photons from each pinhole interfere with each other
>and you can no longer tell which bit of quantum mechanical amplitude
>came from where.

Oh, that's a neat argument.

>In a very real sense, when a photon is detected it
>can be said to have originated from both pinholes.

That's good, very good.

Now what if we did the same experiment using two lasers, throttled down
so 'only one photon is in the apparatus at any one time'.

Would you expect the same result?
I would.

>Afshar, and by proxy a lot of other people (including new scientist
>and several physicists), have exposed their ignorance of basic quantum
>mechanics.

I don't think that's the real point. I think the real point is that
optics gives a clear and simple description and using occham's razor is
the one to be preferred. Personally I have no doubt that QM
(particulate) will give the same results, it ought to - its been honed
to match experiment very well. 

-- 
Oz
This post is worth absolutely nothing and is probably fallacious.
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