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Physics Procedia

Event-by-event simulation of Wheeler’s delayed-choice experiment

Shuang Zhao, Shengjun Yuan, Hans A. De Raedt, Kristel F. L. Michielsen

Published Jan 1, 2010• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We present a computer simulation model of Wheeler’s delayed choice experiment. The model is solely based on experimental facts and does not rely on concepts of quantum theory or probability theory. We demonstrate that it is possible to give a particle-only description of Wheeler’s delayed choice experiment which reproduces the averages calculated from quantum theory and which does not defy common sense.

DOI
10.1016/j.phpro.2010.09.024

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We present a computer simulation model of Wheeler’s delayed choice experiment. The model is solely based on experimental facts and does not rely on concepts of quantum theory or probability theory. We demonstrate that it is possible to give a particle-only description of Wheeler’s delayed choice experiment which reproduces the averages calculated from quantum theory and which does not defy common sense.
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Wave-particle duality has become one of the flagships of quantum mechanics. This counterintuitive concept is highlighted in a delayed-choice experiment, where the experimental setup that reveals either the particle or wave nature of a quantum system is decided after the system has entered the apparatus. Here we consider delayed-choice experiments from the perspective of device-independent causal models and show their equivalence to a prepare-and-measure scenario. Within this framework, we consider Wheeler's original proposal and its variant using a quantum control and show that a simple classical causal model is capable of reproducing the quantum mechanical predictions. Nonetheless, among other results, we show that, in a slight variant of Wheeler's gedanken experiment, a photon in an interferometer can indeed generate statistics incompatible with any nonretrocausal hidden variable model, whose dimensionality is the same as that of the quantum system it is supposed to mimic. Our proposal tolerates arbitrary losses and inefficiencies, making it specially suited to loophole-free experimental implementations.
A corpuscular simulation model of optical phenomena that does not require the knowledge of the solution of a wave equation of the whole system and reproduces the results of Maxwell's theory by generating detection events one-by-one is discussed. The event-based corpuscular model gives a unified description of multiple-beam fringes of a plane parallel plate and single-photon Mach-Zehnder interferometer, Wheeler's delayed choice, photon tunneling, quantum eraser, two-beam interference, Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bohm and Hanbury Brown-Twiss experiments. The approach is illustrated by application to a recent proposal for a quantum-controlled delayed choice experiment, demonstrating that also this thought experiment can be understood in terms of particle processes only.
A corpuscular simulation model of optical phenomena that does not require the knowledge of the solution of a wave equation of the whole system and reproduces the results of Maxwell's theory by generating detection events one-by-one is discussed. The event-based corpuscular model gives a unified description of multiple-beam fringes of a plane parallel plate and single-photon Mach-Zehnder interferometer, Wheeler's delayed choice, photon tunneling, quantum eraser, two-beam interference, Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bohm and Hanbury Brown-Twiss experiments. The approach is illustrated by application to a recent proposal for a quantum-controlled delayed choice experiment, demonstrating that also this thought experiment can be understood in terms of particle processes only.