Atom Interference

Most recent answer: 11/25/2014

Q:
IN the Wolfgang Ketterlie quote below, where in the pattern might the annihilated atom reappear and by what means? http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2002/20mar_newmatter/ "That means ... we have the remarkable effect that an atom (in one BEC) plus an atom (in another BEC) gives no atom. It's destructive interference," says Ketterle. "Of course we didn't destroy matter, it just appeared somewhere else in the pattern, so the total number of atoms is conserved."
- Errol Maxky (age 63)
Harrisburg Pa USA
A:

The atom interference makes the pattern of light and dark stripes you see in the picture. The atoms missing from the light stripes show up instead in the dark stripes.

Mike W.


(published on 11/25/2014)