The triple-slit experiment

Abstract

The “double-slit” experiment revealed that light and matter are both particles and waves and demonstrated the superposition principle: that particles can be in multiple states and locations simultaneously. Recently scientists have run versions of the experiment with three slits instead of two. The change has revealed new details about how the superposition must be calculated in slit-experiment boundary conditions. The triple slit experiment is also helpful in quantum computing. It offers the chance to create three-dimensional quantum bits (instead of the usual two), which may help scale up quantum computers to useful size.