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Electromagnetic waves

ABOUT THE INTERFERENCE INDUCED BY ELECTRONS WHY DOES THE ELECTRON BEHAVE LIKE A WAVE

Antonio Puccini

Published Jan 1, 2006• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract—One of the most interesting and peculiar phenomena of Quantum Mechanics is the interference (I) induced by the electrons. Strangely enough, though the electrons are real particles, they often behave just like waves. From the point of view of the classical mechanics the I induced by the electrons is unexplainable, however it is solved mathematically using the formalism of quantum mechanics and applying Schrödinger’s equation. The quantum solution of the problem is clear and elegant, especially from a mathematical point of view, however it still leaves some perplexities as to understand how exactly the phenomenon happens. We will make a hypothesis trying to understand the undulation phenomenon of the electron: it is really a strange and mysterious phenomenon. Maybe if we consider that the electron, just as the baryons and the mesons, might be made of smaller particles (saving the integrity of the unity of the negative electrical charge and the other Laws of Conservation), we could understand more easily how a single electron can go through two close holes at the same time. Analogously we could better understand another very particular quantum phenomenon carried out mainly by electrons, that is the tunnel effect. In this case, though the particle does not have enough energy to go through the potential barrier, though it does not have any material possibility to pass through a layer which does not have any hole, after several “attempts ” the particle will manage to pass through the barrier anyway, as it had dug a tunnel, or as it had managed to find a “breach ” in the wall. In this phenomenon too, though we can explain it from a mathematical point of view, using the equations of the quantum mechanics, it is still not clear how actually the electron manages to have an undulation behaviour.

DOI
10.2528/pier05050903

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Abstract—One of the most interesting and peculiar phenomena of Quantum Mechanics is the interference (I) induced by the electrons. Strangely enough, though the electrons are real particles, they often behave just like waves. From the point of view of the classical mechanics the I induced by the electrons is unexplainable, however it is solved mathematically using the formalism of quantum mechanics and applying Schrödinger’s equation. The quantum solution of the problem is clear and elegant, especially from a mathematical point of view, however it still leaves some perplexities as to understand how exactly the phenomenon happens. We will make a hypothesis trying to understand the undulation phenomenon of the electron: it is really a strange and mysterious phenomenon. Maybe if we consider that the electron, just as the baryons and the mesons, might be made of smaller particles (saving the integrity of the unity of the negative electrical charge and the other Laws of Conservation), we could understand more easily how a single electron can go through two close holes at the same time. Analogously we could better understand another very particular quantum phenomenon carried out mainly by electrons, that is the tunnel effect. In this case, though the particle does not have enough energy to go through the potential barrier, though it does not have any material possibility to pass through a layer which does not have any hole, after several “attempts ” the particle will manage to pass through the barrier anyway, as it had dug a tunnel, or as it had managed to find a “breach ” in the wall. In this phenomenon too, though we can explain it from a mathematical point of view, using the equations of the quantum mechanics, it is still not clear how actually the electron manages to have an undulation behaviour.
Abstract One of the greatest mysteries that has puzzled and seemingly hoodwinked our very understanding of nature is the single electron double slit experiment – one that Feynman termed the central mystery of quantum mechanics. At the heart of this mystery is how can an electron that is a physical particle exhibit a wave-like property? We’ve proposed a non-counterintuitive way to explain this phenomenon called the randomly-jumping electron hypothesis, in which the electron randomly “jumps” in discrete succession to specific points only and not others which is what causes the electron to indeed be a classical particle only but is able to produce a wave-like interference pattern. To provide supporting evidence for our hypothesis, we’ve developed a computer program to simulate the single electron double slit experiment by treating the electron as a classical particle while still exhibiting wave-like fringes in agreement with real-world observed data of the single electron double slit experiment performed. Our interpretation does not set out to “solve” the mystery of why an electron can produce a wave-like interference pattern once and for all, however our hypothesis is a monism ontological interpretation that does address some of the crucial debates that have remained unsolved for 100 years since the formulation of quantum mechanics.
The two-slit interference experiment is usually adopted to discuss the superposition principle applied to radiation and to show the peculiar wave behaviour of material particles. Diffraction and interference of electrons have been demonstrated using, as interferometry devices, a hole, a slit, double hole, two-slits, an electrostatic biprism etc. A number of books, short movies and lectures on the web try to popularize the mysterious behaviour of electrons on the basis of Feynman thought experiment which consists of a Young two-hole interferometer equipped with a detector to reveal single electrons. A short review is reported regarding, i) the pioneering attempts carried out to demonstrate that interference patterns could be obtained with single electrons through an interferometer and, ii) recent experiments, which can be considered as the realization of the thought electron interference experiments adopted by Einstein-Bohr and subsequently by Feynman to discuss key features of quantum physics.
Abstract A distinguishing feature of quantum mechanics, as compared with classical mechanics, is the phenomenon of matter exhibiting wave-like properties. A direct consequence of this wave property of particles is the tunneling of particles through potential energy barriers.-3 The classical particle is forbidden from penetrating the barrier region. In this chapter, the problem of one-dimensional (1D) quantum mechanical tunneling of particles through potential barriers of arbitrary shape is treated. We show that tunneling is a mixed boundary value problem, and obtain the action integral that leads to Schrodinger’s equation and at the same time gives the equations defining the boundary conditions (BCs).
The mainstream quantum mechanics uses “probability wave superposition and single-electron self-interference” to explain electron single-slit and double-slit diffraction. This theory deviates from the essential nature of real particle interactions and has fundamental logical flaws. The electron is a negatively charged real particle with a definite physical size and high-frequency transverse oscillation; a single real particle has no physical basis for self-interference. Abandoning the abstract probability wave hypothesis, this paper establishes a complete real-interaction model including electrostatic repulsion deflection, surface electron exchange, collision scattering, microscopic refraction, and barrier diffraction, based on the three-dimensional random transverse oscillation and charge repulsion of electrons. The model uniformly explains the real formation mechanism of electron single-slit diffraction and double-slit interference fringes. This paper proves that in single-electron sequential emission, each electron passes through only one slit; all bright and dark fringes are the statistical result of multiple microscopic interactions between electrons and slit walls or the central barrier. The disappearance of fringes under observation is caused by external disturbance to the inherent oscillation and wall-interaction equilibrium, not by wave function collapse. This paper further clarifies that whether an electron can pass through a slit is determined by its transverse oscillation amplitude, not by wavelength. Amplitude directly corresponds to slit width and is the core controlling variable of diffraction. Meanwhile, if no slit is placed, electrons flying directly to the screen produce no diffraction or interference fringes, proving that electrons themselves have no self-interference ability. Fringes are generated by slit structures, not by intrinsic wave interference of electrons. This study corrects the century-long misunderstanding of electron diffraction and establishes a new microscopic diffraction mechanism consistent with classical real-particle physics.
The nature of the problem The quantum world is inexplicable in classical terms. The predictions pertaining to the interaction of matter and light embodied in Newton's laws for the motion of particles and Maxwell's equations governing the propagation of electromagnetic fields are in flat contradiction with the experimental facts at the microscopic scale. A key feature of quantum effects is their apparent indeterminism, that individual atomic events are unpredictable, uncontrollable and literally seem to have no cause. Regularities emerge only when one considers a large ensemble of such events. This indeed is generally considered to constitute the heart of the conceptual problem posed by quantum phenomena, necessitating a fundamental revision of the deterministic classical world view. Some of the principal phenomena, among those discussed in this book, are as follows: ( a ) Self-interference: a beam of electrons sent one at a time through a barrier containing two apertures builds up through a series of localized detection events on a screen an interference pattern characteristic of waves (cf. the frontispiece and §5.1). ( b ) Tunnelling: an α-particle trapped in a nucleus can pass through a potential barrier in a manner forbidden to a classical particle (§5.3). ( c ) The stability of matter: atoms and molecules are found to exist only in certain discrete, or ‘stationary’, energy states. For this reason they do not ‘collapse’, the result predicted by classical electrodynamics. During transitions between stationary states (quantum jumps) an atom exchanges a discrete quantity of energy with the electromagnetic field (§§4.5, 7.6). […]
We have seen that a quantum particle like an electron has wave-like features and that an electromagnetic wave has particle-like properties as we may consider such a wave as a collective of photons. This naturally raises the question how quantum particles really exhibit these wave-like properties. In this chapter we focus on the question of whether particles can show interference effects like waves do. The answer to this question is affirmative, as is demonstrated by the famous double slit experiments of various kinds. In this chapter we consider classical as well as quantum wave phenomena.