Quantum wave function directly measured

[twilyth]

This is pretty cool. They were able to do it only by using identical photons. I think it's incredibly satisfying to be able to visualize something like this.

Science News

The wave function that describes the location of a single particle of light is colorfully depicted in an artist’s interpretation, superimposed on an image of the experimental setup.

 

[qubit]

Interesting. It's a shame that this thread has received no replies, but I think it's likely because this is all a bit abstract, like cutting edge physics tends to be.

One can ask what's the point of this measurement, but of course there is. Measurements like this can add extra evidence to solidify and refine the theory further, find something new and unexpected, or blow a hole in the theory.

 

[twilyth]

The concept of a wave function is really difficult to get a handle on. It's not in any way intuitive and your mind keeps trying to find analogies to the real world, but there just aren't any.

I don't know who turned me on to this, but I 've been reading the physics 2000 tutorials and they do a damned good job of explaining things in a way that I think anyone can understand. You just have to be patient and go slowly.