Abstract
Ever since Stern and Gerlach (SG) confirmed the existence of the spin and the magnetic moment which accompanies it, as well as the force a magnetic gradient may apply on it, a fierce debate ensued over the feasibility of a SG interferometer (SGI). In such a SGI, a particle with a spin (e.g. a neutral atom) is put into a superposition of two spin states which are macroscopically separated and recombined in space. The fundamental enigma was whether such a macroscopic separation of the partial wavepackets will introduce a large dispersion of phases within the individual wavepackets. Heisenberg and Wigner [1] thought that this was an impossibility due to the very fundamental nature of quantum mechanics. Bohm [2] said that fantastic accuracy will be required. Englert, Schwinger and Scully [3] made an analogy to the Humpty-Dumpty (HD) rhyme and named this impossibility the HD effect. Similar to broken glass, it was thought that extra-ordinary circumstances are required in order to put HD back together again, in a way that would enable all the quantum phases to be accurately restored so that an interference pattern may be observed.
© 2013 IEEE
PDF ArticleMore Like This
O. Gorceix, S. Nie Chormaic, J. Robert, Ch. Miniature, and J. Baudon
QMD2 European Quantum Electronics Conference (EQEC) 1994
Aviv Karnieli and Ady Arie
FTh1H.2 CLEO: QELS_Fundamental Science (CLEO:FS) 2018
Leon Karpa and Martin Weitz
IF8_1 International Quantum Electronics Conference (IQEC) 2007