A particular difficulty in discriminating between mirror images

Discriminating between antihydrogen and mirror-trapped antiprotons in a minimum-B trap

Recently, antihydrogen atoms were trapped at CERN in a magnetic minimum (minimum-B) trap formed by superconducting octupole and mirror magnet coils. The trapped antiatoms were detected by rapidly turning off these magnets, thereby eliminating the magnetic minimum and releasing any antiatoms contained in the trap. Once released, these antiatoms quickly hit the trap wall, whereupon the positrons ...

Discriminating orthogonal single-photon images

We can encode an image from an orthogonal basis set onto a single photon from a downconverted pair via the use of an amplitude mask. We can then discriminate the image imprinted on the photon from other images in the set using holographic-matched filtering techniques. We demonstrate this procedure experimentally for an image space of two objects, and we discuss the possibility of applying this ...

Discriminating mirror symmetry in foveal and extra-foveal vision

The ability to discriminate perfect from imperfect mirror symmetry was examined at the fovea and at eccentricities out to 10 degrees in the nasal visual field. A 2-AFC method of constant stimuli was employed in which a bilaterally symmetric pattern was presented in one interval and a degraded version of this symmetric pattern in the other. The subject's task was to decide which interval contain...

Discriminating between Different Pathways

Neuropsychology: Reflections on mirror images

A recent advertising campaign ran a picture of eight copies of the Mona Lisa. In four of them she faced left, as in Figure 1, and in the other four she faced to her right. All but two of them had a detail changed: for example, which hand crossed on top. The slogan with the advert ran “Don’t mistake familiarity for knowledge”. Anyone looking at the advert would be sure the picture was the Mona L...