A double-slit `which-way experiment on the complementarity--uncertainty debate


Abstract in English

A which-way measurement in Youngs double-slit will destroy the interference pattern. Bohr claimed this complementarity between wave- and particle behaviour is enforced by Heisenbergs uncertainty principle: distinguishing two positions a distance s apart transfers a random momentum q sim hbar/s to the particle. This claim has been subject to debate: Scully et al. asserted that in some situations interference can be destroyed with no momentum transfer, while Storey et al. asserted that Bohrs stance is always valid. We address this issue using the experimental technique of weak measurement. We measure a distribution for q that spreads well beyond [-hbar/s, hbar/s], but nevertheless has a variance consistent with zero. This weakvalued momentum-transfer distribution P_{wv}(q) thus reflects both sides of the debate.

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