Content area

Abstract

Double slits provide incoming particles with a choice. Those that survive passage through the slits have chosen from two possible paths, which interfere to distribute them in a wave-like manner. Such wave-particle duality continues to be challenged and investigated in a broad range of disciplines with electrons, neutrons, helium atoms, C60 fullerenes, Bose-Einstein condensates and biological molecules. All variants have hitherto involved material constituents. We present a matterless double-slit scenario in which photons generated from virtual electron-positron pair annihilation in head-on collisions of a probe laser field with two ultra-intense laser beams form a double-slit interference pattern. Such electromagnetic fields are predicted to induce material-like behaviour in vacuum, supporting elastic scattering between photons. Our double-slit scenario presents, on the one hand, a realizable method with which to observe photon-photon scattering and, on the other hand, demonstrates the possibility of both controlling light with light and non-locally investigating features of the quantum vacuum structure.

Details

Title
A matterless double slit
Author
King, Ben; Di Piazza, Antonino; Keitel, Christoph H
Pages
92-94
Publication year
2010
Publication date
Feb 2010
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
ISSN
17494885
e-ISSN
17494893
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
873331248
Copyright
Copyright Nature Publishing Group Feb 2010