
Researchers observe single photons in two-slit interferometer experiment - revorad
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-06-quantum-physics-photons-two-slit-interferometer.html
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ajdecon
Chad Orzel, an experimental physicist, has a pretty good explanation of this
experiment (including the paper figures!) up on his blog:
[http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2011/06/watching_photons_...](http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2011/06/watching_photons_interfere_obs.php)

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patrickas
Actually they did not measure definite positions and momenta for single
photons, which would be HUGE news and contradict QM. They did a bunch of
measurements on a bunch of photons and deduced an "average".

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mikecane
I just posted on this but will not link and just cut to the chase. Is anyone
here able to answer this longstanding question I've had?

>>>If it was possible to shoot one photon at a time through the twin slits,
would the photons consistently land at the same spots over and over again? I
keep wondering if it’s deterministic. The interference pattern is always the
same, isn’t it? So why not the placement of each photon to create it? Kind of
like setting up a chess board: each photon has its place.

~~~
jameskilton
The double-slit experiment is one of the key to understanding quantum
mechanics of individual particles and how particles don't act just like
particles, but like waves as well.

This section on wikipedia explains it quite well:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-
slit_experiment#When_obs...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-
slit_experiment#When_observed_emission_by_emission)

In short, Quantum mechanics doesn't follow locality rules we're used to in our
macro world, so it can be really hard to wrap your mind around what's going
on.

~~~
eru
And those particles don't really behave like waves either. It's much stranger
than that.

Basically, quantum mechanics throws out the notion of a path of movement. You
can tell where something is, when you observe it, but you can't tell where it
has been in between.

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revorad
Direct link to the paper -
<http://www.sciencemag.org/content/332/6034/1170.abstract>

Unfortunately, I don't have full access. If anyone has it, can they post some
more details about the experiment?

