Quantum chaos and the double-slit experiment

Journal Article · Thu Sep 15 04:00:00 EDT 2005 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.72.032111· OSTI ID:20718484

Casati, Giulio ^[1]; Prosen, Tomaz ^[2]

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1. Center for Nonlinear and Complex Systems, Universita' degli Studi dell'Insubria, Como (Italy)
2. Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana (Slovenia)

We report on the numerical simulation of the double-slit experiment, where the initial wave packet is bounded inside a billiard domain with perfectly reflecting walls. If the shape of the billiard is such that the classical ray dynamics is regular, we obtain interference fringes whose visibility can be controlled by changing the parameters of the initial state. However, if we modify the shape of the billiard thus rendering classical (ray) dynamics fully chaotic, the interference fringes disappear and the intensity on the screen becomes the (classical) sum of intensities for the two corresponding one-slit experiments. Thus we show a clear and fundamental example in which transition to chaotic motion in a deterministic classical system, in absence of any external noise, leads to a profound modification in the quantum behavior.

• OSTI ID: 20718484
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Journal Name: Physical Review. A Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 72; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
CHAOS THEORY
INTERFERENCE
NOISE
NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
QUANTUM MECHANICS
SIMULATION
WAVE PACKETS