Momentum exchange in the electron double-slit experiment

Authors

Herman Batelaan, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Eric Jones, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Wayne Cheng-Wei Huang, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Roger Bach, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

ORCID IDs

Batelaan, Herman

Huang, Wayne Cheng-Wei

Date of this Version

2016

Document Type

Article

Citation

Journal of Physics: Conference Series 701 (2016) 012007 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/701/1/012007

Comments

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence.

Abstract

We provide support for the claim that momentum is conserved for individual events in the electron double slit experiment. The natural consequence is that a physical mechanism is responsible for this momentum exchange, but that even if the fundamental mechanism is known for electron crystal diffraction and the Kapitza–Dirac effect, it is unknown for electron diffraction from nano-fabricated double slits. Work towards a proposed explanation in terms of particle trajectories affected by a vacuum field is discussed. The contentious use of trajectories is discussed within the context of oil droplet analogues of double slit diffraction.