- #1
sqljunkey
- 181
- 8
Using the principle of least action can you figure out which path the photon took, or which slit it went thru given some initial condition. Or is this not possible and why.
You also have to know the times at which the photon is at these positions. It’s not enough to say “there’s a dot on the film here”, you also have to be able to say when that dot appeared. You can do that for the detection event but not the emission event.sqljunkey said:if I know the initial position and the final position of the photon...
Let's say you shine a beam of light trough long cylinder of glass. Let's say that cylinder is so long that the path around cylinder trough the air would take less time for light to travel. Would you expect that light will go around cylinder just because this path takes less time to travel?sqljunkey said:But assuming this principle, there could be only one right path. if the photon had to go through both slits that means one of these trajectories was longer than the other one and would take more time and more action. and we know light takes the path of least action and least time.
Idea that quantum particles are somehow switching between particle like behavior and wave like behavior is simply flawed. If this idea is hunting you, you can try to adopt Bohmian interpretation to get rid of it.sqljunkey said:But it's certainly an alternative idea to a shy particle that quickly turns into a distribution wave-like glob when people aren't looking at it and then back into a particle again when people are looking.
sqljunkey said:... And it's either going to be one of these holes, because I have to take the minima of the action.
Correct me if I'm wrong. :3
The quantum mechanical explanation for the double-slit experiment isn’t anything like that.sqljunkey said:But it's certainly an alternative idea to a shy particle that quickly turns into a distribution wave-like glob when people aren't looking at it and then back into a particle again when people are looking.
sqljunkey said:I don't know.
But it's certainly an alternative idea ...
QED tells you that the idea of a "path of a photon" doesn't make sense. That's why the action principle is applied to fields rather than to "trajectories" in the evaluation of QFT path integrals: It's derived from applying the saddle-point approximation to the path integral, which provides a formal expansion in powers of ##\hbar##, i.e., is a systematic expansion around the "classical field-theory limit", i.e., in this case Maxwell classical electrodynamics.sqljunkey said:Using the principle of least action can you figure out which path the photon took, or which slit it went thru given some initial condition. Or is this not possible and why.
The Double Slit Experiment is a classic experiment in physics that demonstrates the wave-particle duality of light. It involves shining a beam of light through two parallel slits and observing the resulting interference pattern on a screen. This experiment has been used to study the nature of light and the behavior of particles at the quantum level.
The path of least action is a principle in physics that states that particles will follow the path that minimizes the action, which is a measure of the energy required to move the particle. In the Double Slit Experiment, the path of least action is observed as the interference pattern on the screen, where the particles take the path that results in constructive interference and the brightest spots on the screen.
The Double Slit Experiment is significant in quantum mechanics because it demonstrates the wave-particle duality of light and the probabilistic nature of particles at the quantum level. It also shows that the behavior of particles can be influenced by the act of observation, leading to the development of the famous observer effect.
Yes, the Double Slit Experiment has been performed with other particles such as electrons, protons, and even large molecules like buckyballs. The results have been consistent with the wave-particle duality theory, further supporting the principles of quantum mechanics.
While the Double Slit Experiment is primarily used for scientific research and understanding the behavior of particles, it also has practical applications. For example, it has been used to develop technologies such as electron microscopes and particle accelerators. Additionally, the principles of the experiment have been applied in fields like optics and quantum computing.