The p-Adic Schr\"odinger Equation and the Two-slit Experiment in Quantum Mechanics

TL;DR

This paper develops a p-adic quantum mechanics framework with nonlocal Schr"odinger equations, revealing that particles pass through only one slit in the double-slit experiment, challenging traditional interference explanations.

Contribution

It introduces a p-adic quantum mechanics model with nonlocal interactions and shows particles do not interfere in the double-slit experiment within this framework.

Findings

p-adic Schr"odinger equation describes nonlocal quantum evolution

Particles pass through only one slit in the p-adic model

Interference patterns arise from probability densities, not wave interference

Abstract

p-Adic quantum mechanics is constructed from the Dirac-von Neumann axioms identifying quantum states with square-integrable functions on the N-dimensional p-adic space. This choice is equivalent to the hypothesis of the discreteness of the space. The time is assumed to be a real variable. The p-adic quantum mechanics is motivated by the question: what happens with the standard quantum mechanics if the space has a discrete nature? The time evolution of a quantum state is controlled by a nonlocal Schr\"{o}dinger equation obtained from a p-adic heat equation by a temporal Wick rotation. This p-adic heat equation describes a particle performing a random motion in the N-dimensional p-adic space. The Hamiltonian is a nonlocal operator; thus, the Schr\"{o}dinger equation describes the evolution of a quantum state under nonlocal interactions. In this framework, the Schr\"{o}dinger equation admits complex-valued plane wave solutions, which we interpret as p-adic de Broglie waves. These mathematical waves have all wavelength 1/p. In the p-adic framework, the double-slit experiment cannot be explained using the interference of the de Broglie waves. The wavefunctions can be represented as convergent series in the de Broglie waves, but the p-adic de Broglie waves are just mathematical objects. Only the square of the modulus of a wave function has a physical meaning as a time-dependent probability density. These probability densities exhibit interference patterns similar to the ones produced by `quantum waves.' In the p-adic framework, in the double-slit experiment, each particle goes through one slit only.