What Causes Photon Interference in a Double-Slit Experiment?

Marek Żukowski, Jarosław Pykacz, Andrzej Posiewnik

Janusz Wiktor Rajkowski

Abstract In a modified double-slit apparatus, the laser beam was halved by a physical barrier, isolating the two halves around the slits. This design eliminates the supposed quantum-mechanical field interaction as a cause of interference. Our study challenges the quantum interpretation of double-slit interference.

Ge Chen, Yihang Zhang

Sennian Chen

What mechanism causes the interference in the single photon double slits experiment? Is it due to an external factor, or does the photon have a special structure that allows it to interfere with itself to create the interference pattern? Because, as Einstein proposed, the photon is a quantum of EM radiation, we begin our investigation with an EM wave beam (an EM radiation). The purpose of this paper is (1) study the possible structure of photon; (2) use the hybrid structure of the photon to explain single photon double-slit experiment. We discovered that the wave beam is definitely circular polarised and covered by a side membrane. Under the demand of symmetry and quantization, there is a pair of \(\pm\) charges \(\pm q\) and the circular tension \(T(R, \angle, \theta)\) distributes double helically along the side membrane. Quantization of charges requires \(q=\pm e \quad( or (\pm q=\pm k e\) )k=2,3,......). Mechanical equilibrium among the helical distributed \(\pm e(\) or \(\pm q=\pm k e)\), tension \(T\) and the circular polarized EM field inside construct a steady structure to keep the quantized EM beam integrity, shape and size. Its energy \(h v\) concentrates in a cylindrical packet of radius \(R_{\text {max}}\) and length \(\delta\), named \(\in-\) (energy) packet. With the aid of Einstein theory of spontaneous emission, we proved that the photon is consisted of the \(\in=h v \quad(\) or \(\in=n h v)\) energy packet and accompany with a conical \(\psi\) - (EM) wave beam; \(\in\) -packet floats in front of the \(\psi\) -wave. In the double slits experiment, it is the same hybrid structure that causes photon self interference.

S. Kim, Byoung Seung HAM

Over the past several decades, single photon-based path interference in double-slit experiment has been well demonstrated for the particle nature of photons satisfying complementarity theory, where the quantum mechanical interpretation of the single photon interference fringe is given by Born rule for complex amplitudes in measurements. Unlike most conventional methods using entangled photon pairs, here, a classical coherent light source is directly applied for the proof of the same self-interference phenomenon. Instead of double slits, we use a Mach-Zehnder interferometer as usual, where the resulting self-interference fringe of coherent single photons is exactly the same as that of the coherent photon ensemble of the laser, demonstrating that the classical coherence based on the wave nature is rooted in the single photon self-interference. This unexpected result seems to contradict our common understanding of decoherence phenomena caused by multi-wave interference among bandwidth distributed photons in coherence optics.

Liew Boon Hee