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It was calculated to result in a offset arrival time at the detector and a phase shift of 0.4 wavelengths. This means that as the interferometer's arms were spun to face into and against the aether wind, the vertical fringe lines should have moved across the viewer 0.4 fringe widths left and right for a total of 0.8 fringes from maximum to minimum.
As a result, a dark area will be observed there. Because of the 180° phase reversal due to reflection of the bottom ray, the center where the two pieces touch is dark. This interference results in a pattern of bright and dark lines or bands called "interference fringes" being observed on the surface.
Since the Schrödinger equation is a wave equation and all objects can be considered waves in quantum mechanics, interference is ubiquitous. Some examples: Bose–Einstein condensates can exhibit interference fringes. Atomic populations show interference in a Ramsey interferometer.
Assume for simplicity that the intensity A of the two reflected light rays is the same (this is almost never true, but the result of differences in intensity is just a smaller contrast between light and dark fringes). The equation for the electric field of the sinusoidal light ray reflected from the top surface traveling along the z-axis is
Figure 2. Formation of fringes in a Michelson interferometer Figure 3. Colored and monochromatic fringes in a Michelson interferometer: (a) White light fringes where the two beams differ in the number of phase inversions; (b) White light fringes where the two beams have experienced the same number of phase inversions; (c) Fringe pattern using monochromatic light (sodium D lines
Since the gap between the surfaces varies slightly in width at different points, a series of alternating bright and dark bands, interference fringes, are seen. Because the frequency of light waves (~10 14 Hz) is too high for currently available detectors to detect the variation of the electric field of the light, it is possible to observe only ...
Visulization of flux through differential area and solid angle. As always ^ is the unit normal to the incident surface A, = ^, and ^ is a unit vector in the direction of incident flux on the area element, θ is the angle between them.
(b) The fringes have been shifted to the left by 1/100 of the fringe spacing. It is extremely difficult to see any difference between this figure and the one above. (c) A small step in one mirror causes two views of the same fringes to be spaced 1/20 of the fringe spacing to the left and to the right of the step.