- #1
fisico30
- 374
- 0
hello forum.
a question about light and uncertainty:
If a laser beam has a 2 cm diameter when it passes through an aperture that is 6 cm wide, the beam is not affected by the aperture.
Why? What happens to the uncertainty principle there?
Isn't the probability wavefunction affected by the edges of the aperture causing a larger momentum uncertainty?
For a laser beam all the photons belong to the same quantum state, or almost, and so the diffraction spread of a single photon represents the spread of the whole beam.
thanks!
fisico30
a question about light and uncertainty:
If a laser beam has a 2 cm diameter when it passes through an aperture that is 6 cm wide, the beam is not affected by the aperture.
Why? What happens to the uncertainty principle there?
Isn't the probability wavefunction affected by the edges of the aperture causing a larger momentum uncertainty?
For a laser beam all the photons belong to the same quantum state, or almost, and so the diffraction spread of a single photon represents the spread of the whole beam.
thanks!
fisico30