- #1
exmachina
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I came up with the following thought experiment:
Let's assume we have a long carbon polymer (see below) in vacuum somewhere, and there's some wavefunction (nuclear/electron, let's assume born-oppenheimer applies) governing the behaviour of this molecule.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
I shine a highly focused beam so it hits only the three connected carbons on the left side of the polymer.
So, would we expect that:
1) the left 3 carbon's electronic wavefunction collapses?
2) the other carbons (where light doesn't shine on) still exhibits wave-like behaviour?
Let's assume we have a long carbon polymer (see below) in vacuum somewhere, and there's some wavefunction (nuclear/electron, let's assume born-oppenheimer applies) governing the behaviour of this molecule.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
I shine a highly focused beam so it hits only the three connected carbons on the left side of the polymer.
So, would we expect that:
1) the left 3 carbon's electronic wavefunction collapses?
2) the other carbons (where light doesn't shine on) still exhibits wave-like behaviour?