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Re: [Phys-l] "filling" the space in an atom



At 05:09 PM 10/27/2006, Moses F., you wrote:

This is precisely what I meant - a faint beam with one particle at
a time - the way this kind of experiemnt is accurately carried out nowadays.
And if in each such passing, a particle went through only one slit, then the
collective result of many landings after a long exposure would produce a
Gaussian bump on the second screen with the top against the midpoint
between the slits. It WOULD NOT produce the observed diffraction pattern.
The same is true for light interference in a Michelson or Mach-Zender
interferometer with a dimmed beam containing only one photon at a time -
each such photon interferes with itself after superposed motion in both
arms of the interferometer at once.
(See, e.g., P. Dirac, Principles of Quantum Mechanics).

Moses Fayngold,
NJIT

I find it enlightening to recall that diffraction occurs with electrons,
photons, atoms, molecules, crystal lattices and for that matter,
matter in general.



Brian Whatcott Altus OK Eureka!