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Friday, November 29, 2013

Huzzah For Physics!




Wonderful news in Quantum Theory!

I have been waiting for this for years, literally, literally years!
Physics World.Com
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2013/nov/27/does-the-positron-excess-really-exist
Perhaps the simplest and starkest demonstration of wave–particle duality is the famous double-slit experiment. Particles such as photons or electrons that are emitted discretely behave as waves when they pass through two slits and build-up an interference pattern when detected individually on a screen.

In this latest version of the experiment, Lev Vaidman and colleagues at Tel-Aviv University used Mach–Zehnder interferometers as double slits and photons as particles.
[...]
The researchers believe that this validates an unconventional interpretation of quantum theory called the two-state vector formalism. It was first proposed in 1964 by Yakir Aharonov, Peter Bergmann and Joel Lebowitz.

Here, the probability of finding a particle in a particular place is the product of two vectors: one evolving forwards in time from the source and one evolving backwards in time from the detector.
Two vectors, one going forwards in time, and the other going backwards in time. Where is Rod Taylor when you really need him to drag out the old Time Machine?

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