________________
90
Jaina Theory of Multiple Facets of Reality and Truth
Consider the following idealized situation, or "thought experiment,” discussed by Heisenberg. There is an atom in a closed box that is divided by a partition into two equal compartments. The partition has a very small hole so that the atom can pass through it. The hole can be closed by a shutter, if desired. According to classical logic, the atom will be either in the left compartment (L) or in the right compartment (R). There is no third possibility. But quantum physics forces us to admitother possibilities to explain adequately the results of experiments. If we use the words "box" and "atom" at all, then there is no escape whatsoever from admitting that in some strange way, which totally defies description in words, the same atom is, at the same time, in both compartments (when the hole is open). Such a situation cannot be expressed properly in ordinary language—it is inexpressible (except mathematically). As we shall see, it is avaktavya in the terminology of Syādvāda. It is an idea crazy beyond words. But there is no escape; for, totally unlike large objects, particles at the atomic level exhibit
ATOM
a wave aspect as well as a particle aspect. These two aspects, which are contradictory and mutually exclusive in the everyday domain, are complementary in atomic phenomena.
Bohr's famous analysis of a two-slit interference experiment made this complementarity quantitative. The figure here shows a slight variant of the thought experiment involved. A plate P receives the photons. If, as in (a) in the figure, the plate is rigidly fixed, the interference pattern is built up by the arrival of many photons. But with a very weak beam, in which photons cross the apparatus one at a time, and with Psuspended so that it can recoil along the y direction, as in (b), one might try to infer whether an individual photon came through hole A or hole B by measuring the transverse momentum thvo/c transferred to P. This, however, will, by the Heisenberg
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
