2011/12/06 by Giorgio Dillon, Dillon, Giorgio
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Experimental and Theoretical Physics Studies #FOS: Physical sciences #Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics #Physics Education (physics.ed-ph) #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #physics.ed-ph #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1112.1242
8 pages, 2 figures. Revised introduction. Added references
openalex publication_date 2011/12/06 · arxiv created 2012/04/05 · arxiv updated 2015/03/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We prove that, under the condition of validity of the Fresnel approximation, diffraction and interference for a wave traveling in the z-direction may be described in terms of the spreading in time of the transverse (x,y)-wave packet. The time required for the evolved wave packet to yield identical patterns as given by standard optics corresponds to the time for the quantum to cross the optical apparatus. This point of view may provide interesting cues in wave mechanics and quantum physics education.