Young’s double-slit experiment, evolution of the phase

This new episode of our #shorts shows the solution of Schrödinger’s equation for a quantum particle moving towards, and partly through, a double slit. It shows the same evolution as the video but with a different color scheme. The luminosity represents the probability density of finding the particle at a given place (modulus of the wave function squared), while the rainbow-colored hues represent the phase, or argument, of the wave function. The initial state is a Gaussian wave packet with a momentum directed to the right. Here the simulation uses Dirichlet boundary conditions, meaning that the particle is also confined to the square box around the displayed area. Apart from that, this is a shorter remake of the video with better resolution. Music: Epic Unease by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Source: Artist: The simulation solves the Schrödinger equation by discretization. The C code is available on Many thanks to my colleague Marco Mancini for helping me to accelerate my code! You may be interested in some science outreach articles: