Photon detector on a dual slit experiment

  • #1
rasp
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My experiment is to place a detector on one of the slits in the dual slit experiment so That it would record or not the passage of the photon, and then reset the detector to its base state, Erasing the result. In such a case, would the interference pattern be destroyed simply because the detector recorded. I’m guessing it would not, because even though information was temporarily recorded, that information did not pass out of the system. Is my postulate correct?
 
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  • #2
rasp said:
My experiment is to place a detector on one of the slits in the dual slit experiment so That it would record or not the passage of the photon, and then reset the detector to its base state, Erasing the result. In such a case, would the interference pattern be destroyed simply because the detector recorded. I’m guessing it would not, because even though information was temporarily recorded, that information did not pass out of the system. Is my postulate correct?
Maybe not quite in the way you propose but yes. Have a look at this for a start

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_eraser_experiment
 
  • #3
rasp said:
My experiment is to place a detector on one of the slits in the dual slit experiment so That it would record or not the passage of the photon, and then reset the detector to its base state, Erasing the result.

It wouldn't erase the result, for one thing. Quantum erasure requires that nothing be left behind that in any way would indicate what occurred. Pressing a reset button doesn't qualify.

And the photon would be gone, absorbed by the detector anyway.
 
  • #4
rasp said:
and then reset the detector to its base state,
If you can do that, then there will be an interference pattern. However there aren't many detectors that can do that - a macroscopic device at the slit that detects by interacting with the photon definitely will not work.
 

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