hoagy

err' date=' yeah, back to what I was going to say when I said "on top of"... if you try firing a particle and then while it's moving then shutting one of the 2 holes the particle will know that there is only 1 hole and will make the interference pattern as if there is 1 hole.

 

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Let's say the particle you're speaking of (called particle 1) has an entangled twin (called particle 2) that was also in motion approaching a double-slit somewhere else. If shutting one of the two holes in the first double-slit yields a single-slit interference pattern from particle 1, what interference pattern would result from particle 2 if both holes in the second double-slit are left open?

Here's a possible method for faster than light communication:

Imagine two star systems (A and B) separated by a distance of 10 light years, with a laser beam splitter exactly half-way between them. The laser beam splitter creates two entangled beams of laser light (A and B), each headed toward one of the two star systems.

After 5 years, the entangled laser beams reach the two star systems. At each star system is a receiver for the entangled laser beams consisting of a double-slit detector. If the two entangled beams arrive at each star system undisturbed, they will both create an interference pattern on their respective double-slit detector. This is because the probabilistic wave function for the entangled beams has not collapsed.

If laser beam A is disturbed (i.e. observed) just before reaching its double-slit detector, then the wave function for that beam collapses, as does the wave function for laser beam B just before it reaches its detector. This happens instantaneously across the 10 light year distance. The consequence of this is that laser beam B will NOT create an interference pattern at its double-slit detector.

It’s not hard to imagine that one can create a pattern of disturbance on laser beam A that can be translated instantaneously to the detector of laser beam B simply by observing whether there is an interference pattern or not. If the beam is continuous you can send a message just by encoding binary over short time period "frames". Interference pattern during the frame = 0. No interference = 1. From there all the complexity of digital communication protocols can be layered on top of this simple transport mechanism. In this sense, faster-than-light communication can be achieved.

Follow this link for a more in-depth discussion and implications for space exploration:

http://www.seti.org.au/spacecom/quantumcom.html