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I'm curious about one aspect of the basic double slit experiment with electrons in QM. It's related with the time elapsed between shooting each electron. The question is simple: Let's consider the experiment of Hitachi as presented in Tong's Quantum Mechanics Notes. Is it experimentally tested that the outcome is independent of the elapsed time between each shoot? In other words, if we shoot 160000 electrons equidistributed in time in 1 minute, do we have the same pattern as if we do so in, say, one week, or another larger interval of time?

My question is then related to the time conformal invariance of such a experiment, where I'm intrigued by the idea that the interference observed in the so called experiment is intrinsically associated to a small interval of time between shoots, and perhaps is something not conformally invariant on time. To put it simple, I ask whether making this experiment slowly, we loose the interference pattern.

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    $\begingroup$ If somebody ever found anything like that it would have been big news. So nobody found such an effect. If anybody really looked, I am don't know, but probably anybody running that experiment would try it (I would), since it would be an extremely easy experiement which if positive lead to mayor impact. $\endgroup$
    – lalala
    Commented Aug 3, 2021 at 13:20
  • $\begingroup$ In the principle, the answer is yes. But remember that the phase (position of bright fringes) of the interfetogram is directly related to the phase difference of the two patches. It is possibles to maintains this phase differences within seconds at the scale of wavelength,, but weeks or more seems not realistic. Phase blurring destroy the interference pattern. $\endgroup$
    – Jhor
    Commented Aug 3, 2021 at 16:13
  • $\begingroup$ Please read this answer of mine physics.stackexchange.com/questions/238855/… . In quantum mechanics the experiment has to be done with exactly the same boundary conditions "electron scattering off two slits given width given separation". If the experiment could keep the exact boundary conditions, the probability distribution would be unchanged by time lags. IFF. $\endgroup$
    – anna v
    Commented Aug 3, 2021 at 16:49

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Yes, there have been experiments done both with photons and with electrons. Each "single particle" happily goes thru both slits and interferes with itself.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks. I guess you mean that in those experiments, the elapsed time between each shoot is controled, from small intervals to significative larger ones. Is there any reference to those experiments? $\endgroup$
    – Alejandro Passeggi
    Commented Aug 4, 2021 at 15:10

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