Drawing on formal parallels between scalar diffraction theory and quantum mechanics, it is demonstrated that quantum wavefunction propagation requires a holographic model of time. Measurable time manifests between interactions as a duration which is encoded in the frequency domain. It is thus a unified entity, and attempts to subdivide these intervals introduce oscillatory artifacts or spectral broadening, altering the system’s physical characteristics. Analogous to spatial holograms, where information is distributed across interference patterns, temporal intervals encode information as a discrete whole. This framework challenges the concept of continuous time evolution, suggesting instead that discrete trajectories define a frequency spectrum which holographically constructs the associated time interval, giving rise to the experimentally observed energy spread of particles in applications such as time-bin entanglement, ultra-fast light pulses, and the temporal double slit. A generalized model of quantum wavefunction propagation based on recursive Fourier transforms is discussed, and novel applications are proposed, including starlight analysis and quantum cryptography.
Drawing on formal parallels between scalar diffraction theory and quantum mechanics, it is demonstrated that quantum wavefunction propagation requires a holographic model of time. Measurable time manifests between interactions as a duration which is encoded in the frequency domain. It is thus a unified entity, and attempts to subdivide these intervals introduce oscillatory artifacts or spectral broadening, altering the system’s physical characteristics. Analogous to spatial holograms, where information is distributed across interference patterns, temporal intervals encode information as a discrete whole. This framework challenges the concept of continuous time evolution, suggesting instead that discrete trajectories define a frequency spectrum which holographically constructs the associated time interval, giving rise to the experimentally observed energy spread of particles in applications such as time-bin entanglement, ultra-fast light pulses, and the temporal double slit. A generalized model of quantum wavefunction propagation based on recursive Fourier transforms is discussed, and novel applications are proposed, including starlight analysis and quantum cryptography.
Understanding whether the mathematical structure of quantum mechanics is fundamental or emergent remains a central question in the foundations of physics. In particular, the special role played by time in quantum theory, appearing as an external evolution parameter rather than a dynamical observable, suggests that the formalism itself may arise from deeper structural considerations. In this work, we investigate the emergence of quantum mechanical formalism from classical wave dynamics by adopting a dimensional framework in which time is treated as a +1 evolution parameter relative to the dimensions through which physical phenomena (fields or disturbances of a field) propagate and interact. Within this perspective, different fields may evolve with respect to different effective dimensions, while remaining embedded in a common higher-dimensional space, allowing time to acquire a relational and context-dependent role. This means that in our proposed model, time is not a fixed dimension which is experienced the same way for every field or field interaction of any dimensionality. In that sense, time for one physical phenomenon can behave as space for a higher dimensional physical phenomenon, whose time is a different +1 dimension. The central objective of this paper is to determine how a higher-dimensional deterministic field can be consistently represented by a lower-dimensional description that lacks direct access to its full set of evolution parameters and evolves through a spatial (for the higher-dimensional field) dimension. To this end, we introduce a general projection framework in which a higher-dimensional field is mapped to a reduced field through an interaction-based recording process. Crucially, we do not assume the form of this mapping a priori. Instead, we impose the requirement that it preserve the maximum amount of physically accessible information. In particular, we demand the faithful encoding of phase relations, interference structure, and spectral composition, including the relative contributions of different Fourier modes and their superposition. We first demonstrate, within a purely classical 3+1-dimensional wave framework that these constraints severely restrict the admissible form of the reduced description and naturally lead to complex amplitudes, linear superposition, Hilbert space structure, and canonical operator relations. This analysis provides an intuitive and mathematically explicit route to quantum-like descriptions without assuming quantum postulates. We then generalize the construction to a 4+1-dimensional framework, introducing an additional evolution parameter and showing that under the same information-preserving constraints, the Schrödinger equation appears as an effective low-energy description of the reduced dynamics, while a relativistic dispersion relation emerges simultaneously through the encoding of the hidden evolution parameter as an invariant frequency scale. In this way, both quantum mechanical and relativistic structures arise from the same underlying requirement: the consistent and information-preserving representation of higher-dimensional wave propagation in a lower-dimensional observational framework. The results suggest that the formal structure of quantum mechanics need not be postulated a priori, but may instead be understood as the unique mathematical language required to encode the observable remnant of a higher-dimensional deterministic dynamics under strict constraints of symmetry, invariance, and information preservation.
The mathematical similarities between non-relativistic wavefunction propagation in quantum mechanics and image propagation in scalar diffraction theory are used to develop a novel understanding of time and paths through spacetime as a whole. It is well known that Feynman’s original derivation of the path integral formulation of non-relativistic quantum mechanics uses time-slicing to calculate amplitudes as sums over all possible paths through space, but along a definite curve through time. Here, a 3+1D spacetime wave distribution and its 4-momentum dual are formally developed which have no external time parameter and therefore cannot change or evolve in the usual sense. Time is thus seen “from the outside”. A given 3+1D momentum representation of a system encodes complete dynamical information, describing the system’s spacetime behavior as a whole. A comparison is made to the mathematics of holograms, and properties of motion for simple systems are derived.
The probabilistic interference fringes observed in the double slit experiment vividly demonstrate the quantum superposition principle, yet they also highlight a fundamental conceptual challenge: the relationship between a system before and after the measurement. According to Copenhagen interpretation, an unobserved quantum system evolves continuously based on the Schrodinger equation, whereas observation induces an instantaneous collapse of the wave function to an eigenstate. This contrast between continuous evolution and sudden collapse renders the single particle behavior particularly enigmatic, especially given that quantum mechanics itself is constructed upon the statistical behavior of ensembles rather than individual entities. In this study, we introduce a Double Slit Diffraction Surrogate Model DSM based on deep learning, designed to capture the mapping between wave functions and probability distributions. The DSM explores multiple potential propagation paths and adaptively selects optimal transmission channels using gradient descent, forming a backbone for the information through the network. By comparing the interpretability of paths and interference, we propose an intuitive physical analogy: the particle behaves like a stretchable dough, extending across both slits, reconnecting after transmission, allowing detachment before the barrier. Monte Carlo simulations confirm that this framework can naturally reproduce the characteristic interference and diffraction probability patterns. Our approach offers a novel, physically interpretable perspective on quantum superposition and measurement induced collapse. The dough analogy is expected to extend to other quantum phenomena. Finally, we provide a dough based picture, attempting to unify interference, entanglement, and tunneling as manifestations of the same underlying phenomenon.
In quantum mechanics without application of any superselection rule to the set of the observables, a closed quantum system temporally evolves unitarily, and this Lorentzian regime is characterized by von Neumann entropy of exactly zero. In the holographic theory in the classicalized ground state, we argue that the unitary real-time evolution of a non-relativistic free particle with complex-valued quantum probability amplitude in this Lorentzian regime can be temporally analytically continued to an imaginary-time classical stochastic process with real-valued conditional probability density in the Euclidean regime, where the von Neumann entropy of the classicalized hologram and the information of a particle trajectory acquired by the classicalized hologram are positive valued. This argument could shed light on the Euclidean regime of the holographic Universe.
Abstract Quantum mechanics and relativity are extraordinarily successful mathematical theories, yet their conventional physical interpretations rely on substantially different conceptual frameworks. The Theory of Space (TS) proposes a fourth dimension defined by the Planck-related interval, with interpreted as a longitudinal dimension associated with energy (cτ), rather than as the conventional Minkowski spacetime interval. This fourth dimension does not coexist continuously with the observable three spatial dimensions as a conventional four-dimensional manifold. Instead, TS proposes an oscillatory existence between observable 3D presence and a non-observable fourth-dimensional phase. Through this oscillation, the quantum system undergoes repeated dimensional projection into observable 3D, with individual eigenstates manifested probabilistically while the underlying quantum state continues to evolve. Within this framework, phenomena including measurement, the Born rule, the arrow of time, entropy, entanglement, tunneling, and Bell-type correlations acquire a common physical interpretation. Heisenberg uncertainty and non-commutativity are interpreted as consequences of physical parameters associated with different phases of the dimensional oscillation and therefore not simultaneously manifested within the same 3D instance. TS further distinguishes between the quantum system’s spatial component and its compact physical entity. Their coexistence within the complete system provides a proposed physical basis for quantum interference and phase-dependent phenomena, including the double-slit experiment and the path-integral description of quantum evolution. As an extension of the model, TS proposes that the periodic displacement and replacement of quantum space generate a pulsed inward spatial flow. This mechanism provides a possible basis for a quantized gravitational interaction and suggests that gravitational energy may be represented by a positive contribution. Related developments, including spiral spatial flows, follow naturally from the same dimensional-oscillation mechanism. The Theory of Space therefore seeks to provide a common conceptual framework for quantum, relativistic, and gravitational phenomena without replacing the established mathematical equations that successfully reproduce experimental observations. The present work develops this framework and invites critical examination of its assumptions, physical implications, and potential experimental consequences. Keywords: relativity; Lorentz transformation; quantum superposition; quantum superposition; collapse; entanglement; quantum gravity
We present the time-domain theory of spectral filters, starting with the basic propositions of the theory of measurement in quantum mechanics, and develop its parameter-free implementation in the traditional correlation function as well as the filter diagonalization (FD) form. The present study unifies all the time-domain spectral filter algorithms in the literature, under a single theme which is based on the notion of selective measurements. For specific numerical purposes, we have selected Chebyshev polynomials for developing the time propagator and this permits us to carry out the relevent time integrals fully analytically and obtain FD equations in a numerically convenient form. We also argue that the FD method is a particular realization of the general spectral filter goal and it is constrained, in general, by the time-energy uncertainty regime at least as much as the correlation-function-based method. To contrast the performance of the correlation function and the FD methods, we have carried out the detailed numerical experiments on a model system, which suggest that the FD method needs almost as much time propagation as the correlation function method, in order to identify the correct spectrum. The difference lies in the procedure for the exact location of eigenvalue positions, for which the FD method employs a diagonalization step while the correlation function method involves the location of zeros.