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Physical Review Letters

Experimental test of the de Broglie guided-wave theory for photons

L. J. Wang, X. Y. Zou, L. Mandeļ

Published Mar 4, 1991• 56 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A two-photon interference experiment has been carried out, based on an idea recently proposed by Croca, Garuccio, Lepore, and Moreira. The experiment is designed to test a prediction of the de Broglie guided-wave theory, according to which the waves have a physical reality in addition to yielding photon detection probabilities. The results clearly contradict the de Broglie theory, but are consistent with conventional quantum mechanics.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.66.1111

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Experimental Test of the deBroglie Guided Wave Theory for Photons

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An experiment has been carried out to test a prediction of the deBroglie guided wave theory for photons. According to this theory, there exist electromagnetic waves as well as photons, with the former acting as guide for the latter. The wave not only determines the probability for the detection of a photon, but it also has an independent physical reality which can result in photodetection, As a result the guided wave theory predicts an interference effect when two photons pass through an interferometer with a particular geometry and one measures the rate of simultaneous detections by two photodetectors in coincidence as a function of optical path difference, By contrast, quantum mechanics predicts no interference under the same conditions. The experimental results clearly violate the prediction of the guided wave theory, but are in agreement with quantum mechanics.

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Comment on ‘‘Experimental test of the de Broglie guided-wave theory for photons’’

J. R. Croca, Augusto Garuccio, Vito Luigi Lepore +1 more

A comment on the Letter by L.J. Wang, X.Y. Zou, and L. Mandel, Phys. Rev. Lett. 66, 1111 (1991).Received 3 January 1992DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.68.3813©1992 American Physical Society

Physical Review Letters•Jun 22, 1992•12 citations
A two-photon interference experiment has been carried out, based on an idea recently proposed by Croca, Garuccio, Lepore, and Moreira. The experiment is designed to test a prediction of the de Broglie guided-wave theory, according to which the waves have a physical reality in addition to yielding photon detection probabilities. The results clearly contradict the de Broglie theory, but are consistent with conventional quantum mechanics.
An experiment has been carried out to test a prediction of the deBroglie guided wave theory for photons. According to this theory, there exist electromagnetic waves as well as photons, with the former acting as guide for the latter. The wave not only determines the probability for the detection of a photon, but it also has an independent physical reality which can result in photodetection, As a result the guided wave theory predicts an interference effect when two photons pass through an interferometer with a particular geometry and one measures the rate of simultaneous detections by two photodetectors in coincidence as a function of optical path difference, By contrast, quantum mechanics predicts no interference under the same conditions. The experimental results clearly violate the prediction of the guided wave theory, but are in agreement with quantum mechanics.
In this paper we discuss a recent double-slit experiment where which-path information is obtained without disturbing the photons in their path to the detector, and, as a consequence, an interference pattern is observed on the far screen even if it is known which slit the photons go through. We argue that this result is in clear contradiction with a fundamental principle in orthodox quantum mechanics – Bohr’s complementarity principle – and also point out that, on the other hand, the results of this experiment are the expected ones in the framework of de Broglie’s pilot wave theory
This paper proposes a double-slit experiment designed to test a hypothetical extension ofthe de Broglie–Bohm theory. The hypothesis investigated is that a component associated withthe wave function, referred to here as a “wave component”, could be guided by external opticaldevices independently of the photon itself. This contribution is modeled as a modification ofthe wave-function input entering Bohm’s guiding equation. To the best of my knowledge, noexperimental setup explicitly investigates a mechanism of this type involving the capture andreinjection of a wave-function-related contribution through an external optical system.
Although we tend to think of optical interference as a classical wave phenomenon, recent experiments have revealed a number of effects that are not describable in classical terms. This is particularly true of interference effects involving the detection of a photon pair. We shall refer to them as fourth order interference, on the grounds that the joint probability density for the detection of one photon at r sub 1 at time t and another r sub 2 at time t is proportional to the fourth order correlation function of the field. This probability is readily measured when two photodetectors are positioned at r sub 1 and r sub 2 and the signals from the two detectors are fed to a coincidence counter that registers 'simultaneous' detections by the two detectors in coincidence. The topics covered include: fourth order interference measurements; the Franson experiment; and experimental test of the de Broglie guided wave theory.