Probing Particle-Wave Duality with the Stern-Gerlach Effect.

A core tenet of quantum theory is the fact that objects can behave as particles, waves, or a combination of both. This principle is known as particle-wave duality. Quantum objects will exhibit different degrees of particle or wave behavior depending on how their observables are entangled. An illustr...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Journal of the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters Vol. 95; pp. 203 - 214
Autores principales: Barney, Richard D., Van Huele, Jean-François S.
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters 2018
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:A core tenet of quantum theory is the fact that objects can behave as particles, waves, or a combination of both. This principle is known as particle-wave duality. Quantum objects will exhibit different degrees of particle or wave behavior depending on how their observables are entangled. An illustrative example of entanglement is the Stern-Gerlach effect, which entangles the spin of objects with their trajectory. A single Stern-Gerlach magnetic field will cause the objects to behave as particles, but a second field with its inhomogeneity oriented in a different direction to the first will cause the objects to recover some wave behavior. This is evidenced in a pattern of fringes in each object's spatial probability density. Maximum entanglement leads to pure particle behavior while the absence of entanglement leads to pure wave behavior. The amount of entanglement can be controlled by choosing the angle between the inhomogeneities of the two fields that act on the object. Having the two field inhomogeneities oriented perpendicularly to each other leads to maximum recovered wave behavior for spin-1/2 objects. The amount of recovered wave behavior decreases as the field inhomogeneity directions move towards being parallel.