Double Slit Experiment: Interference Patterns & Worldlines

[JPBenowitz]

If we were to remove the double-slit from the experiment and have the CCD screen a light year away would we expect the same results? In other words is it the double slit that causes the interference pattern or do all particles have a worldine that is wave-like? I would think the latter.

 

[soothsayer]

I'm a little confused as to what you are asking, but you're right that all particles have a wavelike nature. It's just that this nature is most easily seen through the double slit, because, like a wave going through the double slit, it causes diffraction, and an interference pattern. Particles moving through free space won't diffract, and we won't observe an interference.

 

[JPBenowitz]

I'm a little confused as to what you are asking, but you're right that all particles have a wavelike nature. It's just that this nature is most easily seen through the double slit, because, like a wave going through the double slit, it causes diffraction, and an interference pattern. Particles moving through free space won't diffract, and we won't observe an interference.

Right but there is a concrete difference between a wave and a probability wave. Suppose we were to define the path taken by each photon by its Lagrangian, if we summed all the lagrangians wouldn't this be the particle wave? The question is does the apparatus (double-slit) interact with each photon in such a manner that the lagrangian is altered and thus an interference pattern forms OR do all particles have lagrangians that will eventually diverge into an interference pattern regardless of an apparatus present? Couldn't vacuum fluctuations cause a diffraction in free-space?