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PLoS ONE

Human Visual System as a Double-Slit Single Photon Interference Sensor: A Comparison between Modellistic and Biophysical Tests

Rita M.R. Pizzi, Rui Wang, Danilo Augusto de Albuquerque Rossetti

Published Jan 27, 2016• 7 citations

Abstract

This paper describes a computational approach to the theoretical problems involved in the Young's single-photon double-slit experiment, focusing on a simulation of this experiment in the absence of measuring devices. Specifically, the human visual system is used in place of a photomultiplier or similar apparatus. Beginning with the assumption that the human eye perceives light in the presence of very few photons, we measure human eye performance as a sensor in a double-slit one-photon-at-a-time experimental setup. To interpret the results, we implement a simulation algorithm and compare its results with those of human subjects under identical experimental conditions. In order to evaluate the perceptive parameters exactly, which vary depending on the light conditions and on the subject's sensitivity, we first review the existing literature on the biophysics of the human eye in the presence of a dim light source, and then use the known values of the experimental variables to set the parameters of the computational simulation. The results of the simulation and their comparison with the experiment involving human subjects are reported and discussed. It is found that, while the computer simulation indicates that the human eye has the capacity to detect the corpuscular nature of photons under these conditions, this was not observed in practice. The possible reasons for the difference between theoretical prediction and experimental results are discussed.

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0147464

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We present a computer simulation model that reproduces, event-by-event, the wave mechanical results of double-slit and two-beam interference experiments. The same model also simulates a one-to-one copy of a single-photon interference experiment with a Fresnel biprism (Jacques V. et al., Eur. Phys. J. D, 35 (2005) 561). The model satisfies Einstein's criterion of local causality and is solely based on experimental facts, comprising the apparatuses used in the experiment and the observation of individual detector clicks. Our results prove that it is possible to give a particle-only description of single-photon double-slit experiments.

We show that quantum detector tomography can be applied to the human visual system to explore human perception of photon number states. In detector tomography, instead of using very hard-to-produce photon number states, the response of a detector to light pulses with known photon statistics of varying intensity is recorded, and a model is fitted to the experimental outcomes, thereby inferring the detector's photon number state response. Generally, light pulses containing a Poisson-distributed number of photons are utilized, which are very easy to produce in the lab. This technique has not been explored to study the human visual system before because it usually requires a very large number of repetitions not suitable for experiments on humans. Yet, in the present study we show that detector tomography is feasible for human experiments. Assuming a simple model for this accuracy, the results of our simulations show that detector tomography is able to reconstruct the model using Bayesian inference with as few as 5000 trials. We then optimize the experimental parameters in order to maximize the probability of showing that the single-photon accuracy is above chance. As such, our study opens the road to study human perception on the quantum level.