A novel look at the double-slit experiment through the symmetries of the vacuum

David H. Oaknin

Published Nov 16, 2024• 0 citations

Abstract

The renowned double-slit experiment encompasses some of the deepest mysteries of QuantumMechanics: single particles behave as corpuscles, but their statistical behavior corresponds to de-localized wave packets. Here, we offer a novel, physically intuitive explanation for this dual behavior.The proposal is based on insight gained from a recently described statistical description of anotherrenowned experiment: the CHSH-Bell experiment. According to the proposed explanation, while each particle follows a single path as it goes through the double-slit and into the detector, it alsomodifies the physical properties of the vacuum around it by spontaneously breaking its symmetries.The well-known pattern of interference fringes that appears in statistical analysis of long sequencesof repetitions is then understood as the result of the self-interaction of the propagating particleswith the polarized vacuum they create around themselves. An experimental setup aimed to test theoffered explanation is suggested.

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