A Proposed Null Test of Surface Passivity in Double-Slit Interference

In electron and photon interference experiments, detectors often display fringe patterns and coarse banding whose detailed appearance varies with material, exposure history, coherence, flux, and vacuum conditions — raising questions about the assumption that detection screens are strictly passive recorders of incident intensity. Though previous experiments used every known rigorously controlled procedure to minimize surface interactions, the passivity of those surfaces has yet to be explicitly tested. This paper proposes a set of empirical tests to assess whether coherence-sensitive, detector-local dynamics — including charge redistribution, gradual structural deformation, local heating, reversible trap occupancy, and surface contamination — contribute measurably to observed interference patterns. Specifically, it introduces a speculative, classical mechanism — the Emergent Attractor Model (EAM) — in which mask-edge-seeded coherence correlations are amplified through a multi-field cascade of history-dependent processes on the detector surface, modulating local absorption probabilities over multiple timescales. The primary purpose of the model is to null test as many contributing variables as possible. In EAM, emergent attractors form on conductive surfaces under grazing incidence. A single surface (such as a mask edge) can generate visible fringes via self-organized lateral excitations. In double-slit configurations, both the mask edge and detector surface contribute, with the detector amplifying mask-seeded correlations through impact-driven multi-field feedback. The proposed model reproduces key features of both single- and double-slit patterns, including blurred envelopes with banding, high-contrast fringe trains, long-term evolution of pattern contrast, flux-dependent visibility, and vacuum/history effects, without invoking free-space wave interference at the screen. It offers a concrete, falsifiable framework for testing the Apparatus Passivity Assumption and exploring whether EAM-like dual-site effects are present in real systems. Several qualitative predictions and diagnostic experiments are outlined to probe material dependence, coherence sensitivity, exposure history, flux, vacuum conditions, and reset protocols. These tests aim not to revise quantum mechanics, but to clarify the role of the detector in shaping observed patterns — and to determine whether EAM-like effects are present in real systems. The surface is a physical object governed by condensed matter physics, and diagnosing its complexity might complement decades of existing work in quantum interference. EAM is one possible detector-side mechanism among many, and every null result could still be informative for understanding detector physics. We propose testing this speculative model so that it can be conclusively falsified. Regardless of the final outcome, the field wins. Correspondence: rauwolfa@gmail.com