Double-Slit Detector

experimentNo. 0050categoryLabs & sensesrecordingpendingrunsin browserdataCC BY 4.0

The fly stands beside a two-slit apparatus. Rotating the fly to face the apparatus enables a programmed which-path detector; turning it away disables the detector and restores the interference pattern.

Interactive preview. Run this experiment in your browser with its cameras, the compound-eye inspector, wireframe views and a simulated neural panel. Run in browser

Setup

• A 60 s sequence that loops by default: particle source, two open slits, path detector, animated particle arrivals and a density curve.
• Controls: Fly rotation (saved, bounded to ±180°), Face detector and Turn away; changes apply while paused or playing.
• Cameras: Experiment / fly and screen, Screen / arrival pattern, Paths / overhead, Fly / detector switch.

Measurement

• Real retinal-only neural acquisition during playback; neural weights are fixed.
• The detector state follows the fly's rotation control; it is a programmed switch, not a neural output.
• Screen density is a normalized Gaussian envelope multiplied by 1 + visibility·cos(38x); visibility is 0 with the detector on and 1 with it off.

Limitations

• Eyesight or consciousness alone does not remove interference; the control switches a physical which-path detector in the rendered apparatus.
• Seeded samples illustrate arrivals; this is not a quantum solver or a calibrated quantum simulation, and the pattern is not a neural result.

Sources

• Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol. III, Ch. 1