Universal Journal of Physics and Application Vol. 2(3-4), pp. 163 - 184
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ON THE (NON)EXISTENCE OF QUANTUM PARTICLE'S TRAJECTORIES BEHIND AN INTERFEROMETRIC GRATING

AUTHOR(S) INFORMATION: Bozic M., Arsenovic D., and Vuskovic L.

ABSTRACT

Single particle interference experiments have documented the existence of trajectory of particles' during the accumulation of an interference pattern. The expression for probability of particle's arrivals to the screen was derived previously [22] by approximating the trajectories with straight lines, which start at various points of the slits, and using wave function of the transverse motion in the momentum representation. We use this expression to determine particle distribution at various distances along the lines parallel to a multiple slit grating. The agreement with usual probability density given by the modulus square of the wave function in coordinate representation is very good in the far field. In the near field the agreement is poor. This result supports the view that the trajectories of the particles do exist and that they are straight lines in the far fields, but further study on the form of the trajectories of particles' in the near field is necessary.