Can an observed atom collapse back into a wave?

[StreetLgnd]

I don't really know where my brain is taking me on this one. I was wondering a couple things..

You set up everything for a Slit Experiment. You shoot an atom and observed it before the slit, then somehow collected the particle. It loops back and shoots it out again, this time with the particle not being observed. Does it go back to being a wave? Or once an atom is observed, does it stays a particle forever?

 

[BvU]

Hello SL,

I don't really know where my brain is taking me on this one

Neither do we -- this is a physics forum, not a telepathy expertise center.

So we need to be told everything: where does your brain come from ? Are you familiar with slit and double slit experiments using light and electrons ?

If so, why bring in atoms ? Or, for that matter: what is the function of the slit in your brain's train of thought ?
In short: what is the experiment ? Any references ?

 

[PeroK]

I don't really know where my brain is taking me on this one. I was wondering a couple things..

You set up everything for a Slit Experiment. You shoot an atom and observed it before the slit, then somehow collected the particle. It loops back and shoots it out again, this time with the particle not being observed. Does it go back to being a wave? Or once an atom is observed, does it stays a particle forever?

Am atom doesn't go back and forth between a wave and a particle. It always behaves as a quantum system.

There are hundreds of threads on here about the myth of wave-particle duality.

If you have time, trying watching the Feynman "Messenger" lecture on QM on the Cornell University website.