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Matter wave diffraction. Chooser mechanism for quantum particle localization.

Within a deterministic theory, based on Schroedinger's time dependent equation, accounting for the coupling of a high dimensional continuum of environmental excitations (called gravonons) to massive particle in a very localized and very weak fashion, we show that as a function of time an incoming matter wave incident on a screen extinguishes, except at a single interaction center on the detection screen.

The transition is reminiscent of the wave - particle duality arising from the "collapse" (also called ''process one'') postulated in the Copenhagen-von Neumann interpretation. In our theory it is replaced by a sticking process of the particle from the vacuum to the surface of the detection screen. This situation was verified in experiments by using massive molecules. In our theory this ''wave-particle transition'' is connected to the different dimensionalities of the space for particle motion and the gravonon dynamics, the latter propagating in the hidden dimensions of 11 dimensional spacetime. The fact that the particle is detected at apparently statistically determined points on the screen is traced back to the weakness and locality of the interaction with the gravonons which allows coupling on the energy shell alone.

Although the theory exhibits a completely deterministic ''chooser'' mechanism for single site sticking, an apparent statistical character results, as it is found in the experiments, due to small heterogeneities in the atomic and gravonon structures.

chooser.gif (9k)
The figure illustrates the time development of the weight of the matter wave packet on a chosen site on the detection screen (uppermost part), in the slits (middle) and in the source (lowest part).

G. Doyen and D. Drakova, Emergence of four dimensional quantum mechanics from a deterministic theory in 11 dimensions, J. Phys: Conf. Ser. vol. 626, p. 012063 (2015).