B Double slit experiment combined with Stern-Gerlach

Nocturnial
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
TL;DR Summary
Would you still see an interference pattern if electrons were put through a Stern-Gerlach device after the double slit?
A bit of background: I've read Derive the probability of spin at arbitrary angle is cos( ) | Physics Forums post in this forum and went into a "thought rabbit hole". It didn't make any sense to me and I think I made a wrong assumption somewhere along the way. Instead of typing everything out, I thought it would be helpful to split my assumptions in several different posts.

In a double slit experiment with electrons you'll see an interference pattern (with enough electrons fired). Suppose after the double slit you put a Stern-Gerlach type experiment. Would you still see an interference pattern, but it separated into two rows depending on the spin or is the interference pattern lost?
 
Last edited:
Physics news on Phys.org
The exact result depends on the details of the experiment, like the relative orientation of the SG with respect to the slit, the SG separation compared to the size of the fringes, etc., but yes, the SG spots would each show an interference pattern.
 
I am not sure if this falls under classical physics or quantum physics or somewhere else (so feel free to put it in the right section), but is there any micro state of the universe one can think of which if evolved under the current laws of nature, inevitably results in outcomes such as a table levitating? That example is just a random one I decided to choose but I'm really asking about any event that would seem like a "miracle" to the ordinary person (i.e. any event that doesn't seem to...
Not an expert in QM. AFAIK, Schrödinger's equation is quite different from the classical wave equation. The former is an equation for the dynamics of the state of a (quantum?) system, the latter is an equation for the dynamics of a (classical) degree of freedom. As a matter of fact, Schrödinger's equation is first order in time derivatives, while the classical wave equation is second order. But, AFAIK, Schrödinger's equation is a wave equation; only its interpretation makes it non-classical...
Back
Top