Delayed choice equals 'necromancy?'


   In view of the surprising results already obtained it was inevitable that, sooner or later, someone would pose the apparently stupid question, "What would happen if the second slit was not opened until its photon or electron had already gone through the alternative open slit."

   The actual result from testing this hypothesis is illustrated below. With just one slit open, a single bar was obtained (not shown).

   When the second slit was opened but only after the photon had already passed through and beyond the first slit, the single dots gradually built up into the bars of the interference pattern. This remained true when any signal to open the second slit would need to exceed the speed of light. Thus any such signal would need to be non-local. (ref. Hellmuth at al, 1986)

   Labelled 'necromancy' (utilizing information from the dead) when first proposed, the actual  experimental proof for "non-locality" had to await development of appropriate technology before becoming achievable. In the meantime advances both in theory and technology already indicated what the probable result would be.

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