[extropy-chat] more on Afshar Experiment, as of 7 weeks ago

[Damien Broderick]

At 11:31 PM 9/19/2004 +0100, BillK wrote:

>One opposing view from W Unruh dated Aug 7 2004, is here:
><http://axion.physics.ubc.ca/rebel.html>

Yeah, but Afshar's (perhaps glib) comment on that is already here:

http://users.rowan.edu/~afshar/FAQ.htm

Unruh has suggested a “<http://axion.physics.ubc.ca/rebel.html>simpler 
version” of my experiment, in which Complementarity survives. His reasoning 
is fallacious. As an analogy, one can argue that a “simpler” airplane can 
be constructed by removing the wings, however, naturally this “simpler” 
version would be incapable of flight. Similarly Unruh’s thought experiment 
is certainly simpler than my experimental setup, but one cannot blame it 
for not performing the same feat: it is an inherently different experiment!

In short, the source of Unruh’s error is the commonly-sited assumption of 
an exact one-to-one correlation between Mach-Zehnder and double-slit 
interferometers
 I suggest that he addresses the actual experiment I have 
performed and calculate the expected results on whether the “which-way” 
information (“which-slit” information for a double-slit welcher-Weg 
experiment) is destroyed by the presence of the wires, rather than discuss 
his version.

I’m pressed for deadlines right now, but in a few days I will provide a 
much more detailed response.