Can we do double slit experiment using quasiparticles?

[kof9595995]

Main Question or Discussion Point

Can we do double slit experiment using ,let's say phonons.

 

[cesiumfrog]

Aren't atoms quasiparticles?

 

[Frame Dragger]

Can we do double slit experiment using ,let's say phonons.

You'd need to discover them in nature first, then develop controlled means of emission and detection, or source existing ones, but I don't see why not.

 

[peteratcam]

Not sure about the double slit experiment as such, but there is certainly a lot of research on doing interferometry experiments with quasiparticles, especially quantum hall states. There are quite clever Mach-Zender interferometers you can design for QH quasiparticles.

 

[f95toli]

You'd need to discover them in nature first, then develop controlled means of emission and detection, or source existing ones, but I don't see why not.

phonons=quantized lattice vibrations.
There are a lot of other examples of quasiparticles. One good example are excitons, which are bound states of one electron and one hole in a semiconductor.

 

[f95toli]

Aren't atoms quasiparticles?

No, not really. However, a collective excitation of a two or more atoms can create a quasiparticle.

 

[cesiumfrog]

No, not really. However, a collective excitation of a two or more atoms can create a quasiparticle.

So two or more nucleons is insufficient, and "quasiparticle" is more specific than just "a complex that can be treated as if it were a single fictional particle"?

 

[kof9595995]

It seems strange to me if phonons can be used for double slits experiment. Because phonon is a quantization of normal modes of vibrations of solids, so doesn't it mean phonon is define to be "confined" in a sense? While double slit experiment uses travelling wave, so it seems a little weird to me.

 

[thinkingboy]

The atom in the lattics vibrate and the collective mode is phonon. The wave on the lattices can have the interference, so it is possible to observe there interfernce, which can be thought as one kind of double slit experiment. Just the setup may be different dramatically from the setup to photon.

 

[kof9595995]

The atom in the lattics vibrate and the collective mode is phonon. The wave on the lattices can have the interference, so it is possible to observe there interfernce, which can be thought as one kind of double slit experiment. Just the setup may be different dramatically from the setup to photon.

So the only difference is phonon interference can never be projected on a scree at distance?

 

[Frame Dragger]

Maybe the entire test could be done within something like a spin-ice. Anyway, I can imagine using filaments of the lattice material, or building the detectors within the lattice.

@kof95959595: Well, probably not, unless you could make the transmitting filaments part of the lattice, (and not filaments). I think constructing a solid which tapers to a point (somewhat like the tip of a SEM), might allow distance to be covered.

There is also the use of a sonic black hole to study phonons, but it would not be "clicks on a detector" or "dots on a screen"... yeah.