Restoration of interference and the fallacy of delayed choice: Concerning an experiment proposed by Englert, Scully, and Walther

Abstract

A two-slit experiment with atoms, proposed by Englert, Scully, and Walther, appears to permit experimenters to choose, after each atom has made its mark on the screen, whether the atom has passed through a particular slit or has, in some sense, passed through both of them. Through a misleading wording these authors even appear to endorse this interpretation. In actual fact, this choice exists only until the atom hits the screen. The said experiment thus is a ‘‘delayed-choice’’ experiment only in the semantically contingent sense of Wheeler.