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arXiv:2203.03371 · Symmetry

The Franson Experiment as an Example of Spontaneous Breaking of Time-Translation Symmetry

David H. Oaknin

Published Feb 14, 2022• 4 citations
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Abstract

We describe an explicit statistical model of local hidden variables that reproduces the predictions of quantum mechanics for the ideal Franson experiment and sheds light on the physical mechanisms that might be involved in the actual experiment. The crux of our model is the spontaneous breaking of time-translation gauge symmetry by the hidden configurations of the pairs of photons locked in time and energy involved in the experiment, which acquire a non-zero geometric phase through certain cyclic transformations.

DOI
10.3390/sym14020380

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•Aug 26, 2024•0 citations
We describe an explicit statistical model of local hidden variables that reproduces the predictions of quantum mechanics for the ideal Franson experiment and sheds light on the physical mechanisms that might be involved in the actual experiment. The crux of our model is the spontaneous breaking of time-translation gauge symmetry by the hidden configurations of the pairs of photons locked in time and energy involved in the experiment, which acquire a non-zero geometric phase through certain cyclic transformations.
The two-photon interferometric experiment proposed by J. D. Franson [Phys. Rev. Lett. 62, 2205 (1989)] is often treated as a ``Bell test of local realism.'' However, it has been suggested that this is incorrect due to the 5050%50 postselection performed even in the ideal gedanken version of the experiment. Here we present a simple local hidden variable model of the experiment that successfully explains the results obtained in usual realizations of the experiment, even with perfect detectors. Furthermore, we also show that there is no such model if the switching of the local phase settings is done at a rate determined by the internal geometry of the interferometers.
The symmetries that govern the laws of nature can be spontaneously broken, enabling the occurrence of ordered states. Crystals arise from the breaking of translation symmetry, magnets from broken spin rotation symmetry and massive particles break a phase rotation symmetry. Time translation symmetry can be spontaneously broken in exactly the same way. The order associated with this form of spontaneous symmetry breaking is characterised by the emergence of quantum state reduction: systems which spontaneously break time translation symmetry act as ideal measurement machines. In this review the breaking of time translation symmetry is first compared to that of other symmetries such as spatial translations and rotations. It is then discussed how broken time translation symmetry gives rise to the process of quantum state reduction and how it generates a pointer basis, Born’s rule, etc. After a comparison between this model and alternative approaches to the problem of quantum state reduction, the experimental implications and possible tests of broken time translation symmetry in realistic experimental settings are discussed.
The Bell's theorem stands as an insuperable roadblock in the path to a very desired intuitive solution of the EPR paradox and, hence, it lies at the core of the current lack of a clear interpretation of the quantum formalism. The theorem states through an experimentally testable inequality that the predictions of quantum mechanics for the Bell's polarization states of two entangled particles cannot be reproduced by any statistical model of hidden variables that shares certain intuitive features. In this paper, we show, however, that the proof of the Bell's theorem involves a subtle, though crucial, assumption that is not required by fundamental physical principles and, hence, it is not necessarily fulfilled in the experimental setup that tests the inequality. Indeed, this assumption can neither be properly implemented within the standard framework of quantum mechanics. Namely, the proof of the theorem assumes that there exists a preferred absolute frame of reference, supposedly provided by the lab, which enables to compare the orientation of the polarization measurement devices for successive realizations of the experiment and, hence, to define jointly their response functions over the space of hypothetical hidden configurations for all their possible alternative settings. We notice, however, that only the relative orientation between the two measurement devices in every single realization of the experiment is a properly defined physical degree of freedom, while their global rigid orientation is a spurious gauge degree of freedom. Hence, the preferred frame of reference required by the proof of the Bell's theorem does not necessarily exist. In fact, it cannot exist in models in which the gauge symmetry of the experimental setup under global rigid rotations of the two detectors is spontaneously broken by the hidden configurations of the pair of entangled particles and a non-zero geometric phase appears under some cyclic gauge symmetry transformations. Following this observation, we build an explicitly local model of hidden variables that reproduces the predictions of quantum mechanics for the Bell's states.
Solid experimental evidence has now been obtained that confirms the violation of Bell's inequality in tests of maximally entangled qubit pairs. This violation is widely interpreted as definitive proof of the impossibility of describing quantum phenomena in terms of locally defined elements of reality. In a series of recent papers, we have noticed, however, that this conclusion inadvertently, yet crucially, relies on the assumed existence of an absolute frame of reference, with respect to which it would be possible to describe independently of each other the hypothetical elements of reality and the measurement devices that test them. Otherwise, a non-zero geometric phase may appear in the description of the former with respect to a closed sequence of settings of the latter, leading to the violation of the inequality. Following this observation, we discuss an explicit statistical model, which fully reproduces the predictions of Quantum Mechanics for the Bell experiment.
The double-slit experiment encompasses the deepest mysteries of Quantum Mechanics. Here, we offer a physically intuitive explanation of this experiment based on insight from a recently described statistical model for the CHSH-Bell and Franson experiments. Accordingly, while each particle follows a single path as it goes through the device and into a detector, it also modifies the physical properties of the vacuum around it by spontaneously breaking its group of symmetries. The well-known pattern of interference fringes that appears in statistical analysis of long sequences of repetitions is then understood as the result of the self-interaction of the propagating particles with the polarized vacuum they create around themselves. A novel experimental setup aimed to test the offered explanation is proposed.