The Path of Light Quanta in an Interference Field

H. Bateman

Richard C. Tolman, Sinclair Smith

In an earlier number of these Proceedings, (1) Professor G. N. Lewis adopted an extreme form of the light quantum theory, in which the light quanta are assumed to travel in straight lines except when deflected by matter, the facts of interference being explained by the assumption that the quanta do not go to those places where the wave theory forbids the action of radiation. As a crucial test between this and other theories of light, Professor Lewis proposed an experiment in which the absence of light quanta, traveling over a particular path which leads to the center of of an interference band on a screen, would produce an unbalanced torque on a reflecting mirror.

John Gordon King, Malcolm Correll

Yanhua H. Shih, Alexander V. Sergienko, Morton H. Rubin +2 more

A pair of light quanta with different colors (155.9-nm difference in center wavelength) generated from parametric down-conversion was injected collinearly into one input port of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Coincidence interference behavior was studied over a wide range of optical path differences of the interferometer. A measurement of 75% interference visibility with oscillation of the pump frequency for a large optical path difference of the interferometer (43 cm) is the signature of a quantum two-photon entangled state, which reflects both particle and wave nature of the light quanta in one experiment.

GREGORY A. BREIT

X. L. Li

Abstract: This paper examines the Double-Slit Interference Thought Experiment to demonstrate that light quanta do not exhibit wave-particle duality under the condition that the experiment is successful. The essence of light quanta is that of pure particles. The thought experiment of light quanta undergoing double-slit interference is pivotal in proving that light quanta, along with other particles such as electrons, atoms, and macromolecules, are purely particulate in nature. In space, photons can interfere with each other's paths based on their momentum. This interference can simultaneously alter the trajectory and even the velocity of photons. That is, a photon beam with greater momentum may carry along a portion of beams with lesser momentum, propagating them over considerable distances. The wavelength of a light wave fundamentally represents the distance between consecutive photons as they queue and advance through space. A longer wavelength corresponds to a greater distance between photons, causing them to diverge more widely in space, as seen with radio waves. Conversely, a shorter wavelength implies closer proximity between photons, resulting in more tightly packed emission and a highly directional nature, as seen in gamma rays. Photons in the visible spectrum may occasionally transmit information with specific content. This information, conveyed via photons, can propagate over distances ranging from several metres to thousands of kilometres.