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Advanced series in applied physics

Delayed-Choice Experiments and Bohr's Elementary Quantum Phenomenon

Warner A. Miller, JOHN ARCHIBALD WHEELER

Published Jan 1, 1997• 23 citations
Publisher
DOI
10.1142/9789812819895_0008

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It is well known that Wheeler proposed several delayed choice experiments in order to show the impossibility to speak of the way a quantum system behaves before being detected. In a double-slit experiment, when do photons decide to travel by one way or by two ways? Delayed choice experiments seem to indicate that, strangely, it is possible to change the decision of the photons until the very last moment before they are detected. This led Wheeler to his famous sentence: No elementary quantum phenomenon is a phenomenon until it is a registered phenomenon, brought to a close by an irreversible act of amplification. Nevertheless some authors wrote that backward in time effects were needed to explain these results. I will show that in delayed choice experiments involving only one particle, a simple explanation is possible without invoking any backward in time effect. Delayed choice experiments involving entangled particles such as the so called quantum eraser can also be explained without invoking any backward in time effect but I will argue that these experiments cannot be accounted for so simply because they rise the whole problem of knowing what a measurement and a collapse are. A previously presented interpretation, Convivial Solipsism, is a natural framework for giving a simple explanation of these delayed choice experiments with entangled particles. In this paper, I show how Convivial Solipsism helps clarifying the puzzling questions raised by the collapse of the wave function of entangled systems.
The delayed-choice quantum eraser represents an interesting experiment that exemplifies Bohr's principle of complementarity in a beautiful way. According to the complementarity principle, in a two-path interference experiment, the knowledge of which path was taken by the particle and the appearance of interference are mutually exclusive. Even when the which-path information is merely retained in specific quantum path-markers, without being actually read, it suffices to eliminate interference. Nevertheless, if this path information is erased in some manner, the interference re-emerges, a phenomenon referred to as the quantum eraser. An intriguing aspect of this experiment is that if the path information is erased after the particle has been detected on the screen, the interference still reappears, a phenomenon known as the delayed-choice quantum eraser. This observation has led to the interpretation that the particle can be influenced to exhibit characteristics of either a particle or a wave based on a decision made long after it has been registered on the screen. This idea has sparked considerable debate and discussions surrounding retrocausality. This controversy is reviewed here, and a detailed resolution provided. Quanta 2025; 14: 66–74.