Scientists circumvent heisenbergs uncertainty principle

[downbeatplumb]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13626587

Aephraim Steinberg of the University of Toronto and his colleagues have sidestepped this limitation by undertaking "weak measurements" of the photons' momentum.

The team allowed the photons to pass through a thin sliver of the mineral calcite which gave each photon a tiny nudge in its path, with the amount of deviation dependent on which slit it passed through.

By averaging over a great many photons passing through the apparatus, and only measuring the light patterns on a camera, the team was able to infer what paths the photons had taken.

While they were able to easily observe the interference pattern indicative of the wave nature of light, they were able also to see from which slits the photons had come, a sure sign of their particle nature.

The trajectories of the photons within the experiment - forbidden in a sense by the laws of physics - have been laid bare.

[lilphil1989]

I think this is a little sensationalist on the part of the BBC reporter. The paper comes nowhere close to claiming to have sidestepped the uncertainty principle.

Nonetheless, this is awesome! (if only the same could be said of the reporting...)