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Multi-slit diffraction in scaled space-time
  • James Feagin
James Feagin
California State University Fullerton

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Abstract

We revisit multi-slit diffraction with a scaling of space and time to exploit an equivalence of wave packets describing quantum free and harmonic oscillator (HO) motion. We introduce a co-moving frame of space and time coordinates to define an effective, time-independent, HO potential that confines and directs initially displaced wave packets along the classical phase space of the oscillator. $N$-slit diffraction in the lab frame from the slits to a distant detector and the familiar spreading of the propagating wave front is then described as the propagation of HO wave packets over just a quarter cycle of the oscillator and confined to the HO potential well. This connection with the co-moving frame suggests a simplified time of flight experiment wherein the arrival time distribution of diffracted particles hitting a \emph{single point detector} in the lab frame images in the co-moving frame as the \emph{full} diffraction pattern from grating to detector.
16 Aug 2024Submitted to Natural Sciences
20 Aug 2024Submission Checks Completed
20 Aug 2024Assigned to Editor
24 Aug 2024Reviewer(s) Assigned
02 Oct 2024Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending