The Double Slit as Manifesto: Coherence, Not Duality
Few experiments in physics have generated more awe — and more paradox — than the double slit. Shine electrons or photons through two narrow slits, and you get an interference pattern: bands of light and dark, a wave-like signature. But measure which slit the particle goes through, and the pattern collapses into a scatter of particle-like impacts. For a century, textbooks have described this as the “wave–particle duality.”
But perhaps we have been reading the wrong lesson.
In the chrono-harmonics framework, the double slit is not paradoxical at all. It is the most direct window into a deeper principle: coherence as the fundamental driver of physical reality.
Duality or Resource?
The traditional view: particles have two incompatible natures — sometimes waves, sometimes points. Quantum mechanics treats this with mathematical elegance, but leaves it conceptually unresolved.
The coherence view: there is no duality, only a spectrum. Wave-like behavior arises where coherence is preserved. Particle-like behavior arises where coherence has collapsed. What we call a “particle” is not a thing, but a fossil: a coherence event frozen into a localized impact.
The Double Slit Recast
Let’s reconsider the experiment step by step:
Emission: A photon or electron leaves the source. It is not a billiard ball, but a coherence packet — a structured oscillation.
Propagation: Through free space, coherence is preserved across multiple paths. Hence, both slits are available; the system “samples” them simultaneously.
Interference: On the screen, the relative phase between the two paths determines whether coherence amplifies (bright fringe) or cancels (dark fringe). This is not “mystery,” it is straightforward correlation across paths.
Measurement: Introduce a detector to track the particle’s path, and you couple the coherence into an uncontrolled environment. Coherence drains, the oscillation collapses, and you are left with a single fossil event — a dot on the detector.
The “mystery” dissolves: the double slit is not showing us duality. It is showing us the survival budget of coherence as it negotiates interaction with matter.
The Numbers Behind It
In physics terms, the interference visibility is proportional to the coherence length of the source. If coherence survives over both slits, interference appears. If decoherence kills the cross-path correlation, the pattern vanishes.
That’s it. Not paradox. Diagnosis. The double slit is a coherence meter.
Why This Matters
If coherence is the primitive, not the particle/wave, then the experiment is telling us something enormous:
Matter is memory. Localized “hits” are coherence residues.
Fields are survival. Oscillatory propagation is what coherence looks like when it holds.
Forces are custodians. What physics calls forces may simply be modes of coherence transfer and stabilization.
The double slit is not a puzzle box — it is the Rosetta Stone of coherence physics.
The Manifesto Claim
So here is the radical proposal:
The universe is not built of particles, nor fields, nor wavefunctions.
It is built of coherence — sustained resonance across scales.
What we call “wave–particle duality” is merely the surface effect of coherence being preserved or dissipated.
The double slit experiment has been telling us this for over a century. It has only looked paradoxical because we have been reading it through the wrong lens.
Closing question for readers: If coherence is the driver, not duality, then perhaps the double slit is not just a physics experiment — but the most profound clue about what reality is doing at every level. What would it mean if life, memory, and even consciousness itself are nothing more — and nothing less — than coherence holding across time?