The Double-Slit Experiment Beyond Probability: The Role of the Environment
Montejo, L.
This paper presents an environment-first account of the double-slit experiment grounded in Boltzmann-Landauer thermodynamics. It argues that classicality does not arise from particle dynamics, observation, or probability, but from irreversible registration executed by an entropy-bearing environment capable of enforcing exclusion at a minimum thermodynamic cost. Quantum amplitudes and Hilbert space are left unchanged and are treated as representations of admissible structure beyond thermodynamic solvency. Interference persists whenever energy-carrying processes remain unregistered. The disappearance of interference is attributed to environmental registration, not to collapse, observation, or decoherence as a causal mechanism. Decoherence and probability are interpreted as downstream statistical descriptions that apply after irreversible registration has occurred. The paper is diagnostic rather than constructive: it identifies a physical precondition for classical outcomes without proposing new dynamics or modifying quantum mechanics. The analysis reframes the double-slit experiment as a problem of environmental enforceability rather than probabilistic paradox, situating classical facts within thermodynamic constraint rather than epistemic update.
•Dec 16, 2025•0 citations