Originally posted by: silverpig
Originally posted by: CallTheFBI
Originally posted by: silverpig
That interference pattern will happen whether you send photons through two slits, or trucks through two tunnels...
A better description of what happens would be to say that the photon passes through both slits at once and interferes with itself. Photons are "fuzzy" and are not point particles (actually, nothing is truly a point particle), and thus has most of it's "being" spread over a small region of space, and all of its being spread over a large area of space. What little part of the photon goes through slit A interferes with what part of the photon goes through slit B, thus causing the interference pattern.
To say that the photon interferes with another photon in a parallel universe isn't accurate in my opinion. Why can this other photon interfere with it's mirror image only if two slits are involved? Why doesn't it interfere if only one slit is involved, or no slits for that matter?
Remember, the parallel universe effect only occurs when there are alternative outcomes. If the photons only have one slit to go through then that is the event that occurs in all the universes, since there are no alternatives, it HAS to go through that one slit. Since that is the event that would occur in that universe you wouldn't notice any difference. Thus, at least two slits must be there for there to be an alternative outcome so in some of the universes an individual photon goes through slit A and other universes the photon goes through slit B. Anyways, that is my unqualified answer. Just a logical guess from what I am reading in the article.
But there is an alternative. The photon can quantum mechanically tunnel through the screen, thereby passing through it and not going through a slit. Since there are a number of these so called "universes", this must happen every time, therefore producing an interference pattern for a single slit (or even for a 0 slit) screen.
Actually, seeing as how you propose a number of universes which may interact, why should a single photon make it through? Chances are equally likely that a photon with a completely opposite amplitude to the initial one will perfectly deconstructively add to it, thereby producing no pattern. There are a myriad of other options if you say there are other universes which may interact with our own.
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