Question about Buckyball interference pattern in the two-slit experiment

[SRH]

Buckyballs are particles and not waves.

Why do they show an interference pattern in the two-slit experiment?


Thanks.

[iquestor]

the same is true with electrons and photons. they are both particles but show wave-like properties in the DS experiment. the reason why they exibit it is a fundamental question of Quantum Physics. there are a few interpretations which include each particle taking all paths and all but one cancelling out, self interference, many universes, etc.

[Shaula]

Buckyballs are particles and not waves.

Why do they show an interference pattern in the two-slit experiment?

Because there are no such things as particles and waves. All objects have elements of both models. Particle and wave are abstractions, they are idealised models of how things can behave. QM deals with wavefunctions which evolve in ways such that certain sets of measurements we make make it look like "particle" and others like "wave".

[starcanuck64]

Doesn't everything have a wave-like nature, it's just the larger the object the shorter the wavelength?

For instance a pea sized object would have a wavelength of around 10^-30 cms, too small to show the quantum effects as observed with particles with much larger wavelengths.

[HenrikOlsen]

Hypothesis:

Buckyballs are particles and not waves.

Prediction:
Two-slitting them will show this.

Experiment contradicting hypothesis made based on that assumption:

Why do they show an interference pattern in the two-slit experiment?
Thanks.

Conclusion: Because your hypothesis was wrong.

Hey! Science just happened. :-) A hypothesis was formulated and failed when presented with an experiment.

Less facetiously, buckyballs do exhibit wave-like behavior when put in an experiment which measured their wave behavior because they, like everything else, do have wave-like aspects.
It's harder to do so because their size (mass) means their wavelength is very short, which is why their particle-like behavior is dominant in most circumstances,.

In this case I expect they were used because their near-spherical symmetry means they get a much clearer result than other molecules of the same mass which would tend to interact electromagnetically with each in the beam.