Quantum Young's experiment, nonlocality and trajectories

Panayiotis Nicos Kaloyerou

Abstract The 2011 experiment by Kocsis et al., using the weak measurement protocol, confirmed the distinctive particle trajectory pattern given by the Bohm-de Broglie causal interpretation model of the quantum version of Young's two-slit experiment. The model uses Gaussian wave-packets. Given that the original (classical) Young's two-slit experiment was modelled by Fresnel in terms of Huygens' spherical waves, we thought it would be interesting to test whether a spherical wave model of the quantum Young's two-slit experiment would yield a similar description, in particular, whether or not the distinctive particle trajectory pattern confirmed by experiment would be reproduced. PACS NO. 03.65.-w

Günter Mahler A

Milena Davidović, Ángel S. Sanz, Mirjana Božić +2 more

We present a trajectory-based interpretation of Young's experiment, the Arago-Fresnel laws and the Poisson-Arago spot.This approach is based on the equation of the trajectory associated with the quantum probability current density in the case of massive particles, and the Poynting vector for the electromagnetic field in the case of photons.Both the form and properties of the evaluated photon trajectories are in good agreement with the averaged trajectories of single photons observed recently in Young's experiment by Steinberg's group at the University of Toronto.In the case of the Arago-Fresnel laws for polarized light, the trajectory interpretation presented here differs from interpretations based on the concept of 'which-way' (or 'which-slit') information and quantum erasure.More specifically, the observer's information about the slit that the photons went through is not relevant to the existence of interference; what is relevant is the form of the electromagnetic energy density and its evolution, which will model consequently the distribution of trajectories and their topology.Finally, we also show that the distributions of end points of a large number of evaluated photon trajectories are in agreement with the distributions measured at the screen behind a circular disc, clearly giving rise to the Poisson-Arago spot.

Sandu Popescu

Edward R. Floyd

Harshank Shrotriya