- #1
Mentz114
- 5,432
- 292
QT would be easier for me to cope with if the interference and diffraction observed experimentally with microscopic objects could be explained entirely by the commutation relations of observables and not by invoking wave properties.
This comes down to the question - if we measure two non-commuting observables nearly simultaneously will the result be subject to interference ? Obviously the answer depends on other things unspecified in this simplification.
For example in the two slit experiment when the particle goes through a slit there is a position measurement with an indeterminacy of at least the distance between the slits. When the particle hits the screen and makes a mark, we have momentum information in x and y ( x being the direction of motion initially ). Do the 'indeterminacy relations' ( as Ballentine puts it) mean that there will be no-go regions of space which will give the dark and light bands characteristic of interference ?
This comes down to the question - if we measure two non-commuting observables nearly simultaneously will the result be subject to interference ? Obviously the answer depends on other things unspecified in this simplification.
For example in the two slit experiment when the particle goes through a slit there is a position measurement with an indeterminacy of at least the distance between the slits. When the particle hits the screen and makes a mark, we have momentum information in x and y ( x being the direction of motion initially ). Do the 'indeterminacy relations' ( as Ballentine puts it) mean that there will be no-go regions of space which will give the dark and light bands characteristic of interference ?