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Wheeler's delayed choice experiment
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Wheeler's delayed choice experiment is a thought experiment proposed by John Archibald Wheeler in 1978[1]. Wheeler proposed a variation of the famous double-slit experiment of quantum physics, one in which the method of detection can be changed after the photon passes the double slit, so as to delay the choice of whether to detect the path of the particle, or detect its interference with itself. Since the measurement itself seems to determine how the particle passes through the double slits, and thus its state as a wave or particle, Wheeler's thought experiment has been useful in trying to understand certain strange properties of quantum particles. An implementation of the experiment in 2007 showed that the act of observation ultimately decides whether the photon will behave as a particle or wave, verifying the unintuitive results of the thought experiment.[2]
[edit] Actual Experiments
[edit] Most recent experiment
In 2007, the first "clean" experimental test of Wheeler's ideas was performed in France by the team of Alain Aspect, Philippe Grangier, Jean-François Roch et al.[2][5][6]
[edit] Earlier experiments
In 2000, Yoon-Ho Kim, et al., reported success in their delayed choice quantum eraser experiment, a variation that combines Wheeler's delayed choice experiment with a quantum eraser experiment, so that the choice to observe the photon or not observe the photon is done after it hits the detector.
Another Quantum eraser experiment was done in 2002 by S. P. Walborn, M. O. Terra Cunha, S. Padua, and C. H. Monken.
[edit] Future experiments
Researchers with access to radio telescopes originally designed for SETI research have pointed to the possibility, and have explicated the practical difficulties, of conducting the Wheeler experiment with actual stellar objects
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