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Is anyone aware of a double, double-slit experiment?

Where for example we can see that light and matter display characteristics of both classically defined waves and then classicly defined particles on the second double slit once it is observed from the same source?

So, something like this:

enter image description here

I am curious if the same light source could act as both a wave and a particle, for example, if the third screen displayed particle results after the second double slit once it had been observed. The screens are tagged with the potential results from a typical double-slit experiment.

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    $\begingroup$ Not aware of this no. Seems interesting though. Of course there is the fact that the photons acting as particles will not be the same photons that act like waves. But still interesting $\endgroup$ Nov 8, 2022 at 15:30
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    $\begingroup$ As after a first slits wave front will be highly dissipated, there will be too small light intensities for a second interference pattern to see, because second double slits acts as some sort of filter. But it may worth a try. $\endgroup$ Nov 8, 2022 at 15:35
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    $\begingroup$ Joshua, You may want to look at the answers to Multiple Double slit experiment and Sequential Double Double Slit Experiment?. Modifying your question to ask about quantum Double-double slit experiments might be interesting. They were proposed by Nobel Laureate Anton Zeilinger and discussed in papers such as "Quantum double-double-slit experiment with momentum entangled photons" in Nature Scientific Reports. $\endgroup$ Nov 9, 2022 at 19:33
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    $\begingroup$ I have voted to re-open, but I don't have enough rep to re-open the question all by myself. I have an answer ready to post if enough other voters also want to re-open. I suspect that you may be disappointed by my answer though. It's just a more elaborate version of what I've already said: The apparatus consisting of screens 2 and 3 is just a duplicate of the one consisting of screens 1 and 2. The second apparatus won't behave any differently from the first one. You won't learn anything from it that you can't learn from the classic experiment. $\endgroup$ Nov 10, 2022 at 15:52
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    $\begingroup$ Now suppose you fill all of space with screens stacked closely together and then drill holes everywhere in each screen. You would still calculate the amplitude by adding the contribution from all the paths. This is the sum-over-paths approach to quantum mechanics. Very zen. $\endgroup$
    – hft
    Nov 11, 2022 at 23:14

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Multiple diffraction is common in high resolution spectrometers. The waves act like waves all the way through until they reach the detector. It is the detector that performs the "observation": that's where the irreversible dissipative process occurs.

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  • $\begingroup$ Hey! @john-doty, so it is possible that we can observe both and it's actually a flaw in the "observation" stage which causes the difference, so to say? $\endgroup$ Nov 9, 2022 at 17:32
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    $\begingroup$ @JoshuaG.Edwards I don't know what you mean by "flaw". Detectors detect photons, optics manipulate waves. $\endgroup$
    – John Doty
    Nov 9, 2022 at 18:47

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