Re: RE: Explaining QM to the layperson

[PPARKER@TWSUVM.UC.TWSU.EDU]

> Date: Tue, 6 May 1997 21:43:56 -0400
> From: Brian Oliver <oliver@alpha.sunyniagara.cc.ny.us>
>
>
> If I'm not mistaken, there are specific experiments that can be =
> performed involving the interference of "two-level atoms" with "single =
> mode" cavity fields whose results can only be explained by considering =
> the atom and/or field system to have been in a superposition of =
> eigenstates of an observable.

There was a picture published in Science News, Scientific American, and
probably others (including the original journal!) within the last year
or so, showing a single confined atom being simultaneously detected in
two physically distinct and separated places. If I recall correctly,
it was touted at the time as a clear illustration of real superposition.
   With luck, someone may produce a reference! (I forgot.)

PS  Please leave off the encoded binaries unless they're really germane
    (as was the case with some recent images), and then tell us what
    they are and why we should bother with them.
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Phil Parker        pparker@twsuvm.uc.twsu.edu
Random quote for this second:
  There is no realizable power that man cannot, in time,
  fashion the tools to attain, nor any power so secure that the
  naked ape will not abuse it. So it is written in the genetic
  cards -- only physics and war hold him in check. And also the
  wife who wants him home by five, of course.
  ---Encyclopedia Apocrypha, 1990 ed.