On Sat, Jul 27, 2013 at 11:59 PM, Dan Asimov <dasimov@earthlink.net> wrote:
I don't understand what's going on here.
1) Are you really "directing" buckyballs (or radiation) at the screen, or just filtering out all but what goes through (one or both of) the two slits?
Buckyballs are usually made with something like an arc welder, so you filter out all but a few going in the same direction at the start. Then you put the double slit at some distance from the source.
2) I would've guessed that there'd be more, not less, infrared radiation as the temperature increases -- at least up to a point. No?
Yes---the hotter the particle, the more radiation.
3) Also, what does "which-way information" mean and how do IR photons provide that?
"Which-way" information is information that can be used to detect which slit the particles went through. An IR photon emitted when the buckyball is near a slit will heat up the material around the slit it goes through more than the material around the other slit.
4) Finally, why does the interference pattern fade away as you heat up the buckyballs?
Because the buckyballs get entangled with the slits, so the balls hitting the screen are in a mixed state (the slit information is "traced out") rather than a coherent state.
Thanks,
Dan
On 2013-07-27, at 4:31 PM, meekerdb wrote:
Yes, and the double slit experiment with buckyballs provides an excellent example because it allows varying the degree of isolation and causing the interference pattern to fade in or out. You heat up the buckyballs you are directing at the screen with the two slits. So the buckyballs can radiate IR photons with provides which-way information. So when they are cold you see the interference pattern and as you heat them up it fades away. And you don't have to "see" the IR photons or otherwise detect them; they just go away to be absorbed the lab walls.
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