Experimental Limits of Ghost Diffraction: Popper’s Thought Experiment

Paul Antoine Moreau, Peter A. Morris, Ermes Toninelli, Thomas Gregory, Reuben S. Aspden, Gabriel Spalding, Robert W. Boyd, Miles J. Padgett

研究成果: Article同行評審

17 引文 斯高帕斯(Scopus)

摘要

Quantum ghost diffraction harnesses quantum correlations to record diffraction or interference features using photons that have never interacted with the diffractive element. By designing an optical system in which the diffraction pattern can be produced by double slits of variable width either through a conventional diffraction scheme or a ghost diffraction scheme, we can explore the transition between the case where ghost diffraction behaves as conventional diffraction and the case where it does not. For conventional diffraction the angular extent increases as the scale of the diffracting object is reduced. By contrast, we show that no matter how small the scale of the diffracting object, the angular extent of the ghost diffraction is limited (by the transverse extent of the spatial correlations between beams). Our study is an experimental realisation of Popper’s thought experiment on the validity of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. We discuss the implication of our results in this context and explain that it is compatible with, but not proof of, the Copenhagen interpretation.

原文English
文章編號13183
期刊Scientific reports
8
發行號1
DOIs
出版狀態Published - 2018 12月 1

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • 多學科

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