Electron/photon interference pattern questioned

In summary, the interference pattern observed in the double-slit experiment is a result of the wave behavior of particles, specifically electrons or photons. This interference is caused by the overlapping of probability distributions, represented by 2 interfering waves. The electron's wave function is spread over the entire space and its shape changes with time, reaching the screen after a certain amount of time. The interference pattern emerges when many electrons are observed, but the mechanics of this interference as "waves" is still a topic of debate.
  • #36
etamorphmagus said:
And why not series of decisions? the wave gets to the screen. That means that some probability for finding that particle there exists - if you decide to measure - which you do. So if it is not detected, it will in the next roll or the next roll. Or are you saying time has no relevance here? It is all instantaneous? special relativity for photons and 0 distance 0 time?

Well, we know the correlated observation results of spacelike and timelike separated Alice and Bob depend on decisions they make as to context. So that tells us that the die is not rolled over and over again. Else you will be trying to figure out how one knows about the other.
 
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  • #37
I found this under Complementarity in Wiki:

In a restricted sense, complementarity is the idea that classical concepts such as space-time location and energy-momentum, which in classical physics were always combined into a single picture, cannot be so combined in quantum mechanics. In any given situation, the use of certain classical concepts excludes the simultaneous meaningful application of other classical concepts. For example, if an apparatus of screens and shutters is used to localize a particle in space-time, momentum-energy concepts become inapplicable. This is reflected in the formalism in the fact that a localized wave-packet is a superposition of plane waves, and therefore does not have a definite energy-momentum. This reciprocal limitation in the possibilities of definition of complementary concepts corresponds exactly to the limitations of the classical picture, where any attempt at the localization of a particle through objects such as slits in diaphragms introduces the possibility of an exchange of momentum with those objects, which is in principle uncontrollable if those objects are to serve their intended purpose of defining a space-time frame. Another famous example is 'Heisenberg's microscope', using which Heisenberg first discovered his uncertainty relations.

So time and energy are also intertwined in the quantum-uncertainty. You don't know when the "wave" reaches the screen, so for all we know, it reached averagely at the same time at every point on the screen, and therefore the probability is like a line on the detector, and from there the result is clear - interference pattern.

Just wanted you to confirm this. What I drew was a probability wave propagating in space-time, but you have uncertainty on space-time --> It's everywhere at the same time. The interference map was created at the moment the electron reached the screen, at any point. Of course, metaphorically.

One of my teachers said that time-energy uncertainty are not in the formalism of QM, but proven for specific cases. So what is this thing?? How can they say it is space-time and energy-momentum which are intertwined in quantum uncertainty?
 

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