Momentum transfer to a free floating double slit: realization of a thought experiment from the Einstein-Bohr debates

Phys Rev Lett. 2013 Sep 6;111(10):103201. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.103201. Epub 2013 Sep 5.

Abstract

We simultaneously measured the momentum transferred to a free-floating molecular double slit and the momentum change of the atom scattering from it. Our experimental results are compared to quantum mechanical and semiclassical models. The results reveal that a classical description of the slits, which was used by Einstein in his debate with Bohr, provides a surprisingly good description of the experimental results, even for a microscopic system, if momentum transfer is not ascribed to a specific pathway but shared coherently and simultaneously between both.