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arXiv:1905.07369

A Case of Quantum Scattering

Eduardo V. Flores

Published May 16, 2019• 0 citations
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Abstract

We analyze the results of an experimental setup that consist of two statistically independent laser beams that cross, interfere and end at detectors. At the beam intersection we place a thin wire at the center of a dark interference fringe and analyze the complementarity inequality. We find that the complementarity inequality is fulfilled provided we include a scattering interaction. We find that this interaction is implicit in the formalism of quantum theory; however, this interaction is active only when the conservation laws are satisfied.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1905.07369

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We analyze the results of an experimental setup that consist of two statistically independent laser beams that cross, interfere and end at detectors. At the beam intersection we place a thin wire at the center of a dark interference fringe and analyze the complementarity inequality. We find that the complementarity inequality is fulfilled provided we include a scattering interaction. We find that this interaction is implicit in the formalism of quantum theory; however, this interaction is active only when the conservation laws are satisfied.
We set up an experiment with two independent laser beams that cross at a small angle, spatially separate, and end at detectors in front of each beam. The setup allows us to obtain maximum path or which-way information, K=1. However, when we scan a thin wire across the beam intersection the which-way information drops to K=0.985. The thin wire serves to verify the presence of an interference pattern with visibility, V=0.833, at the beam intersection. Our results appear to be in conflict with the complementarity inequality, V^2+K^2 smaller or equal to 1. We introduce a model that describes a virtual interference pattern. We resolve our paradoxical findings by proposing that the complementarity inequality does not apply to virtual interference patterns but only to physically real ones. We find that the interference pattern in our setup is virtual.
We have observed interference fringes, like those in Young’s classic experiment, in the laser light scattered by two trapped atoms. The interference fringes are present only in one polarization of the scattered light. The polarization dependence is related to the complementarity principle, which forbids the simultaneous observation of wave-like and particle-like aspects of light. The interference fringes are due to processes in which a single photon scatters from two atoms. We describe methods which might be used to observe other interference eects due to two photons scattering from two atoms.
Interference fringes produced by the superposition of light beams from two independent lasers have been investigated under conditions where the light flux was so low that one photon was usually received at the detector before the next one was emitted by one or the other source. Because the average number of photons detected in each observation was only about 10, a photon correlation technique was used to demonstrate the presence of interference fringes. The measurement procedure was automated, and this led to much greater statistical accuracy than was previously reported. The effect of varying the observation time and the number of interference fringes sampled was investigated, and found to be in good agreement with theory.
Light displays particle and wave properties within the bounds of the complementarity inequality. Using two laser beams that cross and then diverge from each other we explore the inequality. Results, based on semiclassical analysis, are in conflict with the inequality. However, analysis based on quantum electrodynamics resolves the conflict and uncovers a region where particle and wave aspects of light develop independently. Independent development of wave and particle aspects implies that they represent separate realities
I propose to resolve the controversy over the speed of collapse of quantum-mechanical wavefunctions by means of an experimental test with a modified symmetric Mach-Zehnder atom interferometer, with non-intersecting, parallel, widely separated final beams. According to the conventional collapse scenario, the coherent twin-peak atomic wavefunction in the beams of the interferometer suffers an instantaneous collapse, at infinite speed, when the atom is captured by one of the two detectors at the ends of the beams, but it remains coherent until that instant. In contrast, according to the Hellwig-Kraus relativistic collapse scenario, the wavefunction collapses at the speed of light, backward in time along the past light cone of each detector. This leads to a premature collapse, or pre-collapse, which for a beam-to-beam separation of 3 m extends over a time span of 10 ns before arrival at the detectors. Within this time span the paired wavepackets in the two beams will be incoherent. The difference between the coherent wavepackets of the conventional scenario and the incoherent wavepackets of the relativistic scenario can be tested by probing the atomic beams with a transverse laser beam crossing them near the detectors. If the paired atomic wavepackets in the two beams are coherent, the light scattered by the two beams will also be coherent and generate a standing light wave in the space between the beams, with detectable interference fringes. If the paired wavepackets are incoherent, no such interference fringes will be generated, and the distribution of the scattered light will be that of two independent dipoles. The design parameters for this test seem to lie within reach of the techniques of atom interferometry.