Matter-wave interference with particles above one million atomic mass units · revision history

Revision 2

Accepted · core change · record

Changes against revision 1:

Title
Matter-wave interference with particles above one million atomic mass units
Plain
The heaviest particles shown to interfere in a way classical physics cannot mimic weigh about 170,000 atomic mass units. Reaching a million or more, the mass of a small virus, requires slower beams and longer coherence.
Precise · changed · core
Revision 1: Demonstrate near-field (Talbot-Lau) or far-field interference of neutral particles of mass $m \ge 1e6\,\mathrm{u}$ ($1.7e-18\,\mathrm{g}$) whose visibility versus grating power follows the quantum prediction and excludes the classical moire-shadow prediction at stated confidence, and report $\mu$. The 2025 analysis indicates metal clusters need velocities near $2.5e3\,\mathrm{cm}/\mathrm{s}$ in a $1e2\,\mathrm{cm}$ scale interferometer.
Revision 2: Demonstrate near-field (Talbot-Lau) or far-field interference of neutral particles of mass $m \ge 10^{6}\,\mathrm{u}$ ($1.7 \times 10^{-18}\,\mathrm{g}$) whose visibility versus grating power follows the quantum prediction and excludes the classical moire-shadow prediction at stated confidence, and report $\mu$. The 2025 analysis indicates metal clusters need velocities near $2.5 \times 10^{3}\,\mathrm{cm}/\mathrm{s}$ in a $10^{2}\,\mathrm{cm}$ scale interferometer.
Settled by
A Talbot-Lau or vertical interferometer run with MDa clusters, nanoparticles or biomolecules in which quantum and classical predictions differ and the data follow the quantum one.
Kind
well-posed
Answer type
yes-no
References
(empty)
Literature status
open
Status note
In 2025 sodium clusters of 0.4 to 1 MDa gave high-visibility fringes, but at their velocities quantum and classical predictions coincide (arXiv:2507.21211).
Posed since
(empty)

Decisions