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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

A self-consistent picture of wave-particle duality of light

Yongchao Gan, Wenfeng Wang

Published Aug 26, 2007• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Based on the quantum field theory and classical electromagnetic field theory, the behaviors of the electromagnetic field in the boundary of the classical environment and the quantum environment were studied, and three dead-points and five paradoxes, like Lorentz-Compton paradox, non-conservation of the energy of the electromagnetic field before and after quantization due to a number of zero-point energy, the non-self-consistence of the wave-particle duality, etc, were discovered. Through analyzing these dead-points and paradoxes, we found that these paradoxes are related to each other, and all wrapped together. The core problem is the non-self-consistence in the theoretical system and the ambiguity in the mechanism of the wave-particle duality. Based on resolving the classical electromagnetic field into the electromagnetic element-waves according to the photons, a third kind of wave-particle duality, the particle-like characteristics of the classical electromagnetic field in structure, was put forward, and the structure of &pgr;-shape of three kinds of wave-particle duality was revealed. So, in wave-particle duality, the wave and the particle are staggered in existing time, or in existing form, either in imagination or in reality, and the third kind of wave-particle duality will be combined into a unit with the first kind of wave-particle duality, Einstein's wave-particle duality of light, and the second kind of wave-particle duality, de Broglie's wave-particle duality of matter particle. Hence, a self-consistent picture of wave-particle duality of light was set up, and three dead-points and five paradoxes of the electromagnetic field in the boundary of the classical environment and the quantum environment were dispelled. In the last, a crucial experiment was designed for testing this picture.

DOI
10.1117/12.733076

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Based on the quantum field theory and classical electromagnetic field theory, the behaviors of the electromagnetic field in the boundary of the classical environment and the quantum environment were studied, and three dead-points and five paradoxes, like Lorentz-Compton paradox, non-conservation of the energy of the electromagnetic field before and after quantization due to a number of zero-point energy, the non-self-consistence of the wave-particle duality, etc, were discovered. Through analyzing these dead-points and paradoxes, we found that these paradoxes are related to each other, and all wrapped together. The core problem is the non-self-consistence in the theoretical system and the ambiguity in the mechanism of the wave-particle duality. Based on resolving the classical electromagnetic field into the electromagnetic element-waves according to the photons, a third kind of wave-particle duality, the particle-like characteristics of the classical electromagnetic field in structure, was put forward, and the structure of &pgr;-shape of three kinds of wave-particle duality was revealed. So, in wave-particle duality, the wave and the particle are staggered in existing time, or in existing form, either in imagination or in reality, and the third kind of wave-particle duality will be combined into a unit with the first kind of wave-particle duality, Einstein's wave-particle duality of light, and the second kind of wave-particle duality, de Broglie's wave-particle duality of matter particle. Hence, a self-consistent picture of wave-particle duality of light was set up, and three dead-points and five paradoxes of the electromagnetic field in the boundary of the classical environment and the quantum environment were dispelled. In the last, a crucial experiment was designed for testing this picture.
Based on the quantum field theory and classical electromagnetic field theory, the behaviors of the electromagnetic field in the boundary of the classical environment and the quantum environment were studied, and three dead-points and five paradoxes, like Lorentz-Compton paradox, non-conservation of the energy of the electromagnetic field before and after quantization due to a number of zero-point energy, the non-self-consistence of the wave-particle duality, etc, were discovered. Through analyzing these dead-points and paradoxes, we found that these paradoxes are related to each other, and all wrapped together. The core problem is the non-self-consistence in the theoretical system and the ambiguity in the mechanism of the wave-particle duality. Based on resolving the classical electromagnetic field into the electromagnetic element-waves according to the photons, a third kind of wave-particle duality, the particle-like characteristics of the classical electromagnetic field in structure, was put forward, and the structure of n-shape of three kinds of wave-particle duality was revealed. So, in wave-particle duality, the wave and the particle are staggered in existing time, or in existing form, either in imagination or in reality, and the third kind of wave-particle duality will be combined into a unit with the first kind of wave-particle duality, Einstein's wave-particle duality of light, and the second kind of wave-particle duality, de Broglie's wave-particle duality of matter particle. Hence, a self-consistent picture of wave-particle duality of light was set up, and three dead-points and five paradoxes of the electromagnetic field in the boundary of the classical environment and the quantum environment were dispelled. In the last, a crucial experiment was designed for testing this picture.
Based on the theoretical derivation and experimental data, the declaration that the quantum theory of light can contain the classical electromagnetic theory of light is oppugned, and two dead-points are put forward. One is the nonconservation of the energy of the electromagnetic field before and after quantization due to a number of zero point energy, and the other is that the real electromagnetic wave, as a matter, will lose its real material nature in theory, or only as a substitute of photons. Finally, a crucial experiment is designed to demonstrate and compare the accuracy of quantum theory and classical electromagnetic theory in the classical condition.
By the historical and methodological pondering over the development process of modern physics,based on the research work done by Arndt,Zurek,Brune,Myatt and so on,the problem of the wave-particle duality,the boundary between classic physics(world)and quantum physics(world)and the quantum decoherence of object particles is extended to the boundary of electromagnetic fields between classic and quantum in this paper.Thus a Lorentz-Compton paradox is discovered and a feasible,sensitive and dual-success crucial experiment is designed.The analysis above shows that the experiment would give impetus to physics,no matter what result(positive or negative)it may bring about.Therefore,a crucial experiment that might lead the direction of physics development is given,and a vivid case that the historical and methodological thinking on the study of sciences drives it into success is presented in our paper.
The wave-particle duality is one of the most mysterious phenomena of the quantum theory, in this paper first it's studied the rise of the wave properties of matter from the theory of stochastic electrodynamics (SED), in which de Broglie's idea of a guiding wave that follows the particle and determine its trajectory is taken back. In the frame of the theory (SED) this wave is of electromagnetic character and is a traveling wave that propagates within the zero point field (ZPF) which according the SED is a classic electromagnetic field that permeates all universe. The wave rise from the interaction between the background field and the particle that moves with certain velocity. Then, I expose the results of numerical simulations in which the behavior of the ZPF in a two slit diffraction experiment is calculated and a series of macroscopic experiments that shows behaviors similar to the ones described by the SED. Both, simulations and experiments give us a better physical understanding of the guiding wave and of the wave properties of quantum particles
Quantum mechanics is one of basics theories of modern physics, and it is also a theory established with some debates of assumptions. However, in the teaching process, if the assumption of wave-particle duality is directly given, it will be particularly difficult for students to understand. Therefore, based on the teaching practice and previous research, we assume that light corresponds to a kind of real particle starting from the classical electromagnetic theory, according to the description methods of wave optics and geometric optics, and the form of functional equations. Subsequently, employing Planck's quantum conditions, we discuss the connection between the wave nature and particle nature of light. And then the Planck-Einstein relation and the de Broglie relationship are derived, which reflect the wave-particle duality of light and real particle.
For over a century, physics has taught that light is “both wave and particle,” with the photon elevated to a fundamental constituent of nature. This article revisits how thecorpuscular picture of light became dominant—from Newton and Huygens to Einstein’s photoelectric effect and Compton’s scattering—and argues that much of the alleged evidence for photons as “particles” can be reinterpreted more economically in a purely wave-based framework. We highlight a conceptual tension of twentieth-century quantum rhetoric: electrons and photons are routinely described as if they “knew” our experimental intentions, while any serious discussion of consciousness beyond humans is dismissed as unscientific. Building on a recently proposed geometric reinterpretation of the Compton effect—where the wavelength shift arises from field–structure coupling rather than particle–particle collisions—we show how the photoelectric effect and double-slit experiments can likewise be understood without attributing ontological particle status to light. Discreteness emerges not from light being made of corpuscles, but from quantized field modes and the event-like nature of charge in matter. The electromagnetic field remains a wave throughout; only matter clicks. This work integrates new conceptual insights, including two revealing paradoxes of the standard narrative and three implicit principles that guide our geometric reinterpretation, while preserving the full depth and detail of the original analysis.