B Is an electron beam affected by photons?

Herbascious J
Messages
165
Reaction score
7
TL;DR Summary
Are beams made of electrons, like the kind used in the double slit experiments, able to withstand the presence of light or air molecules, without interacting?
I am wondering if one of the prerequisites of the double-slit experiment, when done with electrons, is that the beams must be in a dark vacuum tube so as to not destroy the interference pattern. I am trying to learn if the beams will lose their interference pattern because the particles of the beam are interacting with other particles like photons or gases before hitting the screen.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Herbascious J said:
Summary:: Are beams made of electrons, like the kind used in the double slit experiments, able to withstand the presence of light or air molecules, without interacting?

I am wondering if one of the prerequisites of the double-slit experiment, when done with electrons, is that the beams must be in a dark vacuum tube so as to not destroy the interference pattern. I am trying to learn if the beams will lose their interference pattern because the particles of the beam are interacting with other particles like photons or gases before hitting the screen.
It's better to do the electron double-slit experiment in a vacuum, as you may lose some electrons to collisions with air molecules. It's not a question of losing the interference pattern, it's that electrons may be lost to the experiment (or significantly deflected). Fairly obviously, you need the electrons to have a clear path to the screen.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Likes danielhaish and Herbascious J
PeroK said:
It's better to do the electron double-slit experiment in a vacuum, as you may lose some electrons to collisions with air molecules. It's not a question of losing the interference pattern, it's that electrons may be lost to the experiment (or significantly deflected). Fairly obviously, you need the electrons to have a clear path to the screen.
I know that I didn't asked the question . but I am also wondering do the interaction with air wouldn't destroy the experiment ?
 
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...
Insights auto threads is broken atm, so I'm manually creating these for new Insight articles. Towards the end of the first lecture for the Qiskit Global Summer School 2025, Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Olivia Lanes (Global Lead, Content and Education IBM) stated... Source: https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/quantum-entanglement-is-a-kinematic-fact-not-a-dynamical-effect/ by @RUTA
Is it possible, and fruitful, to use certain conceptual and technical tools from effective field theory (coarse-graining/integrating-out, power-counting, matching, RG) to think about the relationship between the fundamental (quantum) and the emergent (classical), both to account for the quasi-autonomy of the classical level and to quantify residual quantum corrections? By “emergent,” I mean the following: after integrating out fast/irrelevant quantum degrees of freedom (high-energy modes...
Back
Top