Friday, December 22, 2017

quantum mechanics - Deny of wave nature of matter




I have encountered a particle physicist saying that the wave nature of electron doesn't exist and the wavefunction just gives the probability of finding the electron in a particular position.


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Well, actually how can he/she explain the interference pattern in the double-slit experiment? When we don't turn on detectors between the gun of electrons and the result display we see the full interference pattern, but when we turn on the detectors, we see the same pattern to be created particle by particle.



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I am not quite sure what the question is, but the denial of particle wave duality doesn't really have any ground. Of course the wave portion of this duality can be modeled in a probabilistic manner, but there are certainly cases where the physical propagation is a wave form. In the double slit experiment it is noted that single electrons were fired at a time, and despite there only being "one" electron, it interfered with itself causing the same interference pattern as if multiple electrons were fired at once. We aren't exactly sure why this happens, but nonetheless it does. I'd be happy to go into my own theories of why electrons exhibit particle like propagation when observed (if you'd like), but they are unfounded and irrelevant to the topic at hand :)


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