[guesswhowasright (OP)]

A measurement far after the double slit experiment shows the entire life/path of the particle is known via state. The final panel is the exception because the wave will collapse, what matters is what a wave/particle is while in flight.

It's either a wave OR a physical particle(local). It's possible for a wave to make it from point A to B without being measured before the final screen. That's why it shows fringes. You don't get quantum weirdness (Superposition (not talking about superposition of states), Entanglement, Tunneling) events when it's a particle. They don't experience weirdness after decoherence. Only cohered waves are allowed weirdness events.

There is a clear difference of what a particle is with decoherence. The quantum field is responsible for uncertainty and still has influence on physical particles ..making them wobble for fringe tests, in this case it isn't fringe, you are looking at uncertainty. You don't decohere a wave (with a detector) and then expect to find fringes afterwards.

Measurements done after the fact (hitting the final panel) have no barring on what the particle was in flight.

The quantum field doesn't use time from spacetime. Unobserved quantum waves do not age. This is how the quantum field knows if a state was triggered in the particles life/path before launching it. This is the core of what measurement/observation is.

A particle/wave will be what it is throughout the flight. No Duality.

This is the gateway to the Unified Theory. Physical particles go with GR, Unobserved Quantum Waves go with the Quantum Field. Spacetime is separate from the Quantum Field. There is a quantum/classical boundary around the mass of a virus. Objects above this line are automatically decohered.

Unobserved Matter-Waves do not decay. Also, physical particles (observed) do not tunnel. The math involves a "retarded" Schrodinger equation solution with a damping factor that causes the state vector to not be constant. It is an observable, since it is a hermitian operator and its eigenvectors form a basis of the state space. Hooray for dissipative behavior! This behavior is what prevents an observed particle from tunneling. Unobserved quantum waves are immune to forces when trying to tunnel ..physical particles are not. There are constants involved that are not touched by forces when the object is waves.

The delayed choice quantum eraser also shows the entire path of the particle is known before being launched.

Future observed matter-waves decohere before they start moving because their momentum direction triggers decoherence. (Decay of coherence) othes (dot) univie.ac (dot) at/30192/1/2013-07-28_0747803.pdf

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    "Okay, perhaps you could define for me exactly what it means to decohere a particle?"

- Measure it in a way that allows it to continue on its path to a final panel where the wave collapses

    "But if the wave hasn't collapsed into a particle yet (using your terms) then how does it have a "path"?"

- If a wave is going to decohere in its path ..it won't be a wave from the very beginning.

    "So if a wave ever collapses into a particle then it was never a wave to begin with?"

- That's what I said in the OP

    "Can you explain what a quantum field is? Or more specifically, can you explain how the definition of a field doesn't completely contradict your statements like "The quantum field doesn't use time from spacetime" or "Unobserved quantum waves do not age"?"

- The Quantum Field is the group of fields that run on fluctuations.

Something is weird with time in the quantum field. It is connected to the trigger of something gaining a physical state. The age part is said because coherent matter-waves do not decay ..it's only after they decohere and become physical do they age.

    "The Schrodinger equation describes how wave functions "age". It applies even before decoherence."

- Not the same type of "age". Everything about waves is artificial. I think they are holograms/virtual, they hold quantum information. If an unobserved matter wave can tunnel ..so can its mass.

    "Where does the dissipative behavior come from?"

The behavior is built into the "retarded" function arxiv (dot) org/pdf/quant-ph/0206117.pdf

    "If quantum waves are immune to forces, then why do electron orbitals in atoms--which are most definitely waves--exist?"

- They don't have a point A to B ..they don't have a starting point

- They are unreal/virtual/holographic waves

- oh any by the way, Dark Matter is quantum waves that can never be decohered.

[Kryptid]

Take a hint already.

[Colin2B]

Take a hint already.

Another one bites the dust. Ain’t that the pitts?

[chiralSPO]

Take a hint already.

Another one bites the dust. Ain’t that the pitts?

Oh snap! I get it....

[Colin2B]

Oh snap! I get it....

“Too slow chicken Marengo”