Attempt to Reinterpret the Double Slit Experiment

José Antonio Lammardo

Ayhan Aksakallı, Ümit Turgut, Rıza Salar

This study aims to present a perspective regarding the philosophical issues arising from the dual nature of light in Young’s double-slit experiment. In this regard, a summary of Young’s double-slit experiment was presented, the effect of the mathematical equations of the experiment on the existing philosophical was questioned, and the ontological and epistemological concerns arising from this experiment were discussed. To realize this discussion, the opinions of several philosophers of quantum mechanics were considered and an attempt made to establish a relationship between them.

Siddhant Das, Dirk-André Deckert, Leopold Kellers +2 more

Yakir Aharonov

J. Acácio de Barros, Gary Oas, Patrick Suppes

In this paper we attempt to establish a theory of negative (quasi) probability distributions from fundamental principles and apply it to the study of the double-slit experiment in quantum mechanics. We do so in a way that preserves the main conceptual issues intact but allow for a clearer analysis, by representing the double-slit experiment in terms of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer, and show that the main features of quantum systems relevant to the double-slit are present also in the Mach-Zehnder. This converts the problem from a continuous to a discrete random variable representation. We then show that, for the Mach-Zehnder interferometer, negative probabilities do not exist that are consistent with interference and which-path information, contrary to what Feynman believed. However, consistent with Scully et al.'s experiment, if we reduce the amount of experimental information about the system and rely on counterfactual reasoning, a joint negative probability distribution can be constructed for the Mach-Zehnder experiment.

Benjamin Bähr, Boris Lemmer, Rina Piccolo