Matter-wave interference with particles above one million atomic mass units
This text mentions work from 2024 on. Those parts were partly written without a live literature search and have not been checked by an editor yet.
In plain words
The heaviest particles shown to interfere in a way classical physics cannot mimic weigh about 170,000 atomic mass units. Reaching a million or more, the mass of a small virus, requires slower beams and longer coherence.
Precise statement
Demonstrate near-field (Talbot-Lau) or far-field interference of neutral particles of mass $m \ge 10^{6}\,\mathrm{u}$ ($1.7 \times 10^{-18}\,\mathrm{g}$) whose visibility versus grating power follows the quantum prediction and excludes the classical moire-shadow prediction at stated confidence, and report $\mu$. The 2025 analysis indicates metal clusters need velocities near $2.5 \times 10^{3}\,\mathrm{cm}/\mathrm{s}$ in a $10^{2}\,\mathrm{cm}$ scale interferometer.
What would settle it
A Talbot-Lau or vertical interferometer run with MDa clusters, nanoparticles or biomolecules in which quantum and classical predictions differ and the data follow the quantum one.
Status in the literature
Unverified note: it names recent work and was partly written without a live literature search; it awaits a check by an editor.
In 2025 sodium clusters of 0.4 to 1 MDa gave high-visibility fringes, but at their velocities quantum and classical predictions coincide (arXiv:2507.21211).
Parent problems
- Special case of Does the superposition principle fail above some mass or complexity? · open · from revision 1
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