this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2023
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Physics

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[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I hate to sound dumb ... just trying to be crystal clear... with the proper equipment, humans can see the actual B&W Yin Yang shape in real time?

Sorry.... I'm just having a real hard time believing that symbol appears in real time at such microscopic level.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

The Ying Yang is the "shape" of the light source. The point is that their technique can be used to infer the shape of an unknown light source, among other things. In so far as the data being recorded in the experiment involves two photons (or really, many identically prepared copies of two photons over time) and therefore 4 spatial dimensions (x y for each), then yes the 2d image they show is necessarily "interpreted" from the 4d "raw image". Exposure time is 1min according to the paper, so not quite "real time", but the whole theory is time independent (no time in any equation), so I imagine it can be shortened with e.g. higher laser power.

caveat: not an optics person so grain of salt..