When single photons are repeatedly fired through a double slit apparatus, eventually an interference pattern emerges on the detector, suggesting that each individual photon actually propagates as a wave. Because the presence of the double slit wall changes the distribution of locations where each photon actually lands, it seems fair to say that the wave must interact with the double slit wall in some manner.
If the photon doesn't "hit" the double slit wall, but instead makes it to the detector, it seems the only interaction that could have occurred between the wall and the photon is an exchange of momentum. That is, the wave and the wall exchange momentum, thereby changing the direction of the wave, and ultimately impacting the distribution of arrival locations at the detector, but this interaction falls short of forcing the wave to collapse into a particle. I.e., the photon wave doesn't give up any energy to the wall, but does change direction when it interacts with the wall.
Is this a fair description of what happens physically, or theoretically, in the double slit experiment? If so, then doesn't this suggest that a quantum wave can exchange momentum without collapsing into a particle?