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AIP conference proceedings

The double slit experiment and the time reversed fire alarm

Tarek Halabi, Andrei Yu. Khrennikov, Gregg S. Jaeger, M. Schlosshauer, Gregor Weihs

Published Jan 1, 2011• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

When both slits of the double slit experiment are open, closing one paradoxically increases the detection rate at some points on the detection screen. Feynman famously warned that temptation to “understand” such a puzzling feature only draws us into blind alleys. Nevertheless, we gain insight into this feature by drawing an analogy between the double slit experiment and a time reversed fire alarm. Much as closing the slit increases probability of a future detection, ruling out fire drill scenarios, having heard the fire alarm, increases probability of a past fire (using Bayesian inference). Classically, Bayesian inference is associated with computing probabilities of past events. We therefore identify this feature of the double slit experiment with a time reversed thermodynamic arrow. We believe that much of the enigma of quantum mechanics is simply due to some variation of time’s arrow.

DOI
10.1063/1.3578719

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When both slits of the double slit experiment are open, closing one paradoxically increases the detection rate at some points on the detection screen. Feynman famously warned that temptation to “understand” such a puzzling feature only draws us into blind alleys. Nevertheless, we gain insight into this feature by drawing an analogy between the double slit experiment and a time reversed fire alarm. Much as closing the slit increases probability of a future detection, ruling out fire drill scenarios, having heard the fire alarm, increases probability of a past fire (using Bayesian inference). Classically, Bayesian inference is associated with computing probabilities of past events. We therefore identify this feature of the double slit experiment with a time reversed thermodynamic arrow. We believe that much of the enigma of quantum mechanics is simply due to some variation of time’s arrow.
When both slits of the double slit experiment are open, closing one paradoxically increases the detection rate at some points on the detection screen. Feynman famously warned that temptation to “understand” such a puzzling feature only draws us into blind alleys. Nevertheless, we gain insight into this feature by drawing an analogy between the double slit experiment and a time reversed fire alarm. Much as closing the slit increases probability of a future detection, ruling out fire drill scenarios, having heard the fire alarm, increases probability of a past fire (using Bayesian inference). Classically, Bayesian inference is associated with computing probabilities of past events. We therefore identify this feature of the double slit experiment with a time reversed thermodynamic arrow. We believe that much of the enigma of quantum mechanics is simply due to some variation of time’s arrow.
When both slits of the double slit experiment are open, closing one paradoxically increases the detection rate at some points on the detection screen. Feynman famously warned that temptation to "understand" such a puzzling feature only draws us into blind alleys. Nevertheless, we gain insight into this feature by drawing an analogy between the double slit experiment and a time reversed fire alarm. Much as closing the slit increases probability of a future detection, ruling out fire drill scenarios, having heard the fire alarm, increases probability of a past fire (using Bayesian inference). Classically, Bayesian inference is associated with computing probabilities of past events. We therefore identify this feature of the double slit experiment with a time reversed thermodynamic arrow. We believe that much of the enigma of quantum mechanics is simply due to some variation of time's arrow. In further support of this, we employ a plausible formulation of the thermodynamic arrow to derive an uncertainty in classical mechanics that is reminiscent of quantum uncertainty.
Probability and interference According to Feynman, single-particle interference is ‘the only mystery’ of quantum theory (Feynman, Leighton and Sands 1965, ch. 1, p. 1). Feynman considered an experiment in which particles are fired, one at a time, towards a screen with two holes labelled 1 and 2. With both holes open, the distribution P 12 of particles at the backstop displays an oscillatory pattern of bright and dark fringes. If P 1 is the distribution with only hole 1 open, and P 2 is the distribution with only hole 2 open, then experimentally it is found that P 12 ≠ P 1 + P 2 . According to the argument given by Feynman (as well as by many other authors), this result is inexplicable by ‘classical’ reasoning. By his presentation of the two-slit experiment (as well as by his development of the path-integral formulation of quantum theory), Feynman popularised the idea that the usual probability calculus breaks down in the presence of quantum interference, where it is probability amplitudes (and not probabilities themselves) that are to be added. As pointed out by Koopman (1955), and by Ballentine (1986), this argument is mistaken: the probability distributions at the backstop – P 12 , P 1 and P 2 – are conditional probabilities with three distinct conditions (both slits open, one or other slit closed), and probability calculus does not imply any relationship between these. Feynman's argument notwithstanding, standard probability calculus is perfectly consistent with the two-slit experiment.
This article proposes a solution to the double slit experiment of Quantum Mechanics. We attack the problem from a previously untried angle. Unsolved math problems must be attacked from unexpected angles because every conventional approach has already been tried and failed. Richard Feynman warned that the quantum world is such a strange place that humans can’t understand it. There is empirical evidence of particles following zero energy waves backwards, although that is counterintuitive. Schr˝odinger waves carry zero energy: they carry probability amplitudes instead. In our proposed model zero energy Schr˝odinger waves emanating from every point on the target screen pass backwards through the two slits, interfere at the particle gun, and a particle randomly chooses which wave to follow backwards. Once that decision is made the particle follows its wave with a probability of one, through only one slit (it doesn’t matter which slit) and inevitably strikes that point from which its wave emanates. This produces the same math and same pattern on the target screen. We propose three Axioms of the Theory of Elementary Waves (TEW) as a better platform for mathematics in this experiment than the Axioms of QM. This constitutes a paradigm shift.
Young's two-slit test can be interpreted over time. Classical events have a quantum behaviour over time. Based on the findings of this research, Quantum Phenomena have a classical interpretation. The role of time has been neglected in the understanding of quantum mechanics phenomena. By examining classical events over time, Quantum Phenomena were simulated. Entanglement, particle-wave phenomenon, etc. are intertwined in the space-time structure. The role of the arrow of time in solving physics problems can be considered.
Abstract Despite the astonishing successes of quantum mechanics, due to some fundamental problems such as the measurement problem and quantum arrival time problem, the predictions of the theory are in some cases not quite clear and unique. Especially, there are various predictions for the joint spatiotemporal distribution of particle detection events on a screen, which are derived from different formulations and interpretations of the quantum theory. Although the differences are typically small, we show that these predictions can be experimentally distinguished by a proposed unconventional double-slit configuration, which is realizable using present-day single-atom interferometry. This experiment would enrich our understanding of the foundations of quantum mechanics.