The Merli-Missiroli-Pozzi Two-Slit Electron-Interference Experiment
Abstract
In 2002 readers of Physics World voted Young's double-slit experiment with single electrons as "the most beautiful experiment in physics" of all time. Pier Giorgio Merli, Gian Franco Missiroli, and Giulio Pozzi carried out this experiment in a collaboration between the Italian Research Council and the University of Bologna almost three decades earlier. I examine their experiment, place it in historical context, and discuss its philosophical implications.
- Publication:
-
Physics in Perspective
- Pub Date:
- June 2012
- DOI:
- 10.1007/s00016-011-0079-0
- Bibcode:
- 2012PhP....14..178R
- Keywords:
-
- Pier Giorgio Merli;
- Gian Franco Missiroli;
- Giulio Pozzi;
- Akira Tonomura;
- two-slit experiment;
- single-electron interference;
- single-case probability;
- wave-particle duality;
- interpretation of quantum mechanics