Brainstorming the double slit experiment

[#Thomas#]

I'm know I'm just an enthusiastic newbie here, but something's been nagging me and I would appreciate if I could get some assistance on the matter.

I got a notion about light and the double slit experiment, the notion came to me as I was contemplating light traveling at its native speed. For light, some doesn't exist. It takes (from our point of view) just minutes for a photon to reach us, but for the photon itself, the travel is instantaneous. To the photon, time is meaningless, so is distance. For all intents and purposes it can be everywhere and nowhere at once; but most of all, everyTIME at once.

This is where the strange coincidence lies, as it almost describes the same weirdness that came out of the double slit experiment. So then what if this isn't some quantum phenomena but a more like a previously unobserved physical phenomena of stuff traveling at the speed of light?

Now I know they've been shooting the electron gun too at the slit and it came out with the same solution... this is where my own sense breaks down since electrons are much slower...

So... food for thought?

 

[mfb]

To the photon, time is meaningless, so is distance. For all intents and purposes it can be everywhere and nowhere at once; but most of all, everyTIME at once.

Physics just does not work if you try to consider the "view" of light. This has nothing to do with the double slit experiment. And as you mentioned, the double slit experiment works with all sorts of particles independent of their speed.

 

[DennisN]

I second what mfb said above, and...

For all intents and purposes it can be everywhere and nowhere at once; but most of all, everyTIME at once.

... I'd also like to suggest you have a look at this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_cone

 

[bhobba]

I got a notion about light and the double slit experiment, the notion came to me as I was contemplating light traveling at its native speed. For light, some doesn't exist. It takes (from our point of view) just minutes for a photon to reach us, but for the photon itself, the travel is instantaneous. To the photon, time is meaningless,

I have heard people say that but it doesn't gell for me.

If you put the speed of light into the Lorentz factor you get 1/0 which is undefined.

That said its nothing to do with the double slit experiment. Its explanation lies in the rules of standard QM which are entirely classical - by which I mean built right into its foundations is the Galilean Transformations with time as an absolute - in fact from that assumption alone (and of course the axioms of QM) one can derive Schroedingers equation etc. Its is indeed a very interesting fact the dynamics is determined by that one little assumption - time is an absolute - strange but true.

If you remove that assumption and use the Lorentz transformations you get QFT which is an entirely different ball game.

Thanks
Bill

 

[ddd123]

If you remove that assumption and use the Lorentz transformations you get QFT which is an entirely different ball game.

So the double slit is hard to do in QFT?

 

[bhobba]

So the double slit is hard to do in QFT?

QFT is just hard - double slit or anything else.

For example photons don't even have position:
http://arnold-neumaier.at/physfaq/topics/position.html

Thanks
Bill

 

[ddd123]

QFT is just hard - double slit or anything else.

Except for scattering maybe? Not saying it's easy but at least, doable.

 

[bhobba]

Except for scattering maybe? Not saying it's easy but at least, doable.

Scattering?

Thanks
Bill

 

[ddd123]

Sorry, LSZ!

 

[mfb]

Several pages of calculations even for the easiest leading-order processes? I don't think you can call that "easy".
Doable: sure. You can build a mountain if you have a shovel and enough time.

 

[ddd123]

I was just wondering what "hard" means for double slit done in QFT. Often it's a spectrum between "have no idea how" and "impossible".

 

[bhobba]

I was just wondering what "hard" means for double slit done in QFT. Often it's a spectrum between "have no idea how" and "impossible".

Its doable - just hard (meaning long pages of tedious calculations as MFB correctly said)
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1103.0100.pdf

That's my love-hate relationship with QFT - deep and important - but not for the faint hearted or those like me that make far to many errors in long manipulations.

Thanks
Bill

 

[#Thomas#]

I was just wondering what "hard" means for double slit done in QFT. Often it's a spectrum between "have no idea how" and "impossible".

That is why I am so attracted to it. I must be the scientific equivalent to a suicidal moron! :D