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A Classical Explanation for the One-Photon Mach-Zehnder Experiment

Jean Louis Van Belle

Published Dec 1, 2018• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

In previous papers, we tried to show that the lack of an agreed-upon model of the electron may have contributed to an extraordinary convoluted explanation of the anomalous magnetic moment of an electron. We also suggested a classical electron model (the Zitterbewegung or the Dirac-Kerr-Newman model) may explain what is going on. The next logical step, of course, was to re-explore the classical idea of a photon to check if it can do what John Stewart Bell said cannot be done, and that is to explain interference at the level of a single photon. We think we have a classical explanation in this paper. If Mr. Bell was right, we must be wrong – we should be – but we don’t see why.

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In previous papers, we tried to show that the lack of an agreed-upon model of the electron may have contributed to an extraordinary convoluted explanation of the anomalous magnetic moment of an electron. We also suggested a classical electron model (the Zitterbewegung or the Dirac-Kerr-Newman model) may explain what is going on. The next logical step, of course, was to re-explore the classical idea of a photon to check if it can do what John Stewart Bell said cannot be done, and that is to explain interference at the level of a single photon. We think we have a classical explanation in this paper. If Mr. Bell was right, we must be wrong – we should be – but we don’t see why.
The Zitterbewegung model of an electron offers a classical interpretation for interference and diffraction of electrons. The idea is very intuitive because it incorporates John Wheeler’s idea of mass without mass: we have an indivisible naked charge that has no properties but its charge and its size (the classical electron radius) and it is easy to understand that the electromagnetic oscillation that keeps this tiny circular current going – like a perpetual current ring in some superconducting material – cannot be separated from it. In contrast, we keep wondering: what keeps a photon together? Hence, the real challenge for any realist interpretation of quantum mechanics is to explain the quantization of light: what are these photons? In this paper, we offer a classical quantum theory for light. The intuition behind the model is the same as the one we developed for an electron: we think of the photon as a harmonic electromagnetic oscillator, and its elementary cycle determines its properties, including spin and its size (the effective area of interference).
In this paper, we try to show where and why quantum mechanics went wrong – and why and when the job of both the academic physicist as well as the would-be student of quantum mechanics turned into calculating rather than explaining what might or might not be happening. Modern quantum physicists effectively resemble econometrists modeling input-output relations: if they are lucky, they will get some kind of mathematical description of what goes in and what goes out, but the math does not tell them how stuff actually happens. To show what an actual explanation might look like, we bring the Zitterbewegung electron model and our photon model together to provide a classical explanation of Compton scattering of photons by electrons so as to show what electron-photon interference might actually be: two electromagnetic oscillations interfering (classically) with each other. While developing the model, we also offer some reflections on the nature of the Uncertainty Principle. Finally, we also offer a brief history of the bad ideas which led to the current mess in physics.
In this paper, we bring the Zitterbewegung electron model and our photon model together to provide a classical explanation of the scattering of photons by electrons. We understand electron-photon interference (which is usually referred to as Compton scattering) as two electromagnetic oscillations interfering (classically) with each other. While developing the model, we offer some reflections on the Uncertainty Principle (Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics). We conclude there is no need for it: God doesn’t play dice.
This paper summarizes our papers over the past years which – taken together – effectively amount to a classical interpretation of QED. Our very first paper started exploring a basic intuition: if QED is the theory of electrons and photons, and their interactions, then why is there no good model of what electrons and photons actually are? We have tried to address this perceived gap in the theory – further building on the Zitterbewegung model of an electron – ever since. We thought we should write one final paper to provide some history – acknowledgements, basically – and summarize the key principles of the interpretation.
This paper continues to explore a possible physical interpretation of the wavefunction but with a focus on the wavefunction(s) of a single photon in the Mach-Zehnder experiment. It focuses, in particular, on how one might visualize linear and circular polarization states for photon waves, and how beam splitters may or may not split a circular polarization state into two independent linear polarization states or – vice versa – recombine two linear polarization states into one circular state. As such, it attempts to provide a more refined approach to the rather crude hidden-variable theory for explaining quantum-mechanical interference that was presented in a previous paper (http://vixra.org/pdf/1811.0005v1.pdf). The outcome is the same, however: the theory does not work. Hence, this paper again shows the limit of such physical interpretations, thereby confirming the intuition behind Bell’s Theorem.