In microphysics, how do photons behave like both waves and particles? It is called wave-particle duality. The wave-particle duality inference would appear to be counter intuitive. Are waves really a cluster of particles, as is often stated, yet like the waves that radiate in a disturbed pool of water as is often demonstrated? The answer to wave-particle duality may lie through the following proposed solid torus or possibly ellipsoid ringform field explanation, which is derived in part using classical physics. A solid torus or ellipsoid ringform hypothesis is contrary to string theory and at least to some extent accepted particle physics.
In microphysics, how do photons behave like both waves and particles? It is called wave-particle duality. The wave-particle duality inference would appear to be counter intuitive. Are waves really a cluster of particles, as is often stated, yet like the waves that radiate in a disturbed pool of water as is often demonstrated? The answer to wave-particle duality may lie through the following proposed solid torus or possibly ellipsoid ringform field explanation, which is derived in part using classical physics. A solid torus or ellipsoid ringform hypothesis is contrary to string theory and at least to some extent accepted particle physics.
The simplest but deepest questions of the philosophy of quantum mechanics are these: Are quantum systems waves, or are they particles? Are they both or are they neither? When light bounces an electron out of the surface of an alkali metal it behaves like a particle. Light carries momentum but also a punch. Just as there is no such thing as half a punch, so there is no such thing as half a quantum of light. On the other hand, the shadow formed on a screen by an object has soft edges, edges which get softer as the object is moved away from the screen. Light exhibits the phenomena of diffraction and interference and so is wavelike. This dual behaviour of light, and indeed of matter itself, is called wave-particle duality. The wave nature of a quantum system is reflected in wave mechanics which assigns a wave-function to the system. But the dual nature of light was noticed before Schrodinger developed the wave-mechanical formalism in 1926. In fact, it goes back at least as far as Einsteins explanation of the photoelectric effect in 1905. Wave-particle duality is not something that arises within the quantum mechanical formalism. It is something which is expressed within it, and is something which is best discussed in terms of the paradoxes that quantum experiments force upon physics. In fact, the simplest and most immediately disturbing of the quantummechanical paradoxes arise out of wave-particle duality. We take the two-slit experiment and the delayed-choice experiment as examples.
The wave-particle duality of photons, as hypothesized by Einstein, was well accepted by the early 1920's. De Broglie's bold hypothesis in 1924, that all matter likewise has a wave-particle duality added further fuel to the fire in the development of Quantum Mechanics. It seared into the minds of physicists the wave-particle duality of Nature. Needless to say, this counter intuitive and bold assertion mystified the World beyond any sensible comprehension by common sense. The question often asked by ordinary people is what is the matter with de Broglie waves? We provide just this answer and demystify this 'matter' in this short paper.
There are several integration problems of fundamental physics that still lack coherent solutions, the case in point being wave-particle duality. While empiricism and mathematical modelling have served physics well, they have not yet been able to achieve integrated causal models. Conventional theories and approaches have only provided partial solutions, and it is possible that a more radical reconceptualisation of fundamental physics may be required. This work comes at the issue from a totally different approach: it applies design thinking to the problem. The result is the cordus conjecture, which proposes that the photon, and indeed every matter ‘particle’, has an internal structure comprising a 'cordus': two reactive ends that each behave like a particle, with a fibril joining them. The reactive ends are proposed to be a small finite distance apart, and energised [typically in turn] at a frequency. When energised they emit a transient force pulse along a line called a hyperfine fibril [hyff], and this makes up the field. This concept is used to explain the path dilemmas of the single photon in the double-slit device, and the wave behaviour of light including the formation of fringes by single photons and beams of light. In addition it provides a tangible explanation for frequency. It also yields new quantitative derivations for several basic optical effects: critical angle, Snell’s law, and Brewster’s angle. Thus the cordus structure offers an alternative conceptual explanation for wave-particle duality.
There are several integration problems of fundamental physics that still lack coherent solutions, the case in point being wave-particle duality. While empiricism and mathematical modelling have served physics well, they have not yet been able to achieve integrated causal models. Conventional theories and approaches have only provided partial solutions, and it is possible that a more radical reconceptualisation of fundamental physics may be required. This work comes at the issue from a totally different approach: it applies design thinking to the problem. The result is the cordus conjecture, which proposes that the photon, and indeed every matter ‘particle’, has an internal structure comprising a 'cordus': two reactive ends that each behave like a particle, with a fibril joining them. The reactive ends are proposed to be a small finite distance apart, and energised [typically in turn] at a frequency. When energised they emit a transient force pulse along a line called a hyperfine fibril [hyff], and this makes up the field. This concept is used to explain the path dilemmas of the single photon in the double-slit device, and the wave behaviour of light including the formation of fringes by single photons and beams of light. In addition it provides a tangible explanation for frequency. It also yields new quantitative derivations for several basic optical effects: critical angle, Snell’s law, and Brewster’s angle. Thus the cordus structure offers an alternative conceptual explanation for wave-particle duality.
How can interfering light waves transport particle characteristics? Up to now it was supposed that wave-particle duality was a quantum mechanical phenomenon which was not accessible to any classical explanation. The present article is disproving this assumption, by showing o n e single case which is entirely subject to a classical explanation: Photons in vacuum. The suggested classical explanation of wave-particle duality is simple, and it is deriving directly from special relativity: The particle characteristics are transported directly from A to B, without any intermediate of spacetime, because the interval is zero. The observed wave is a sort of placeholder in our spacetime.
At radio wavelength "photons" are not really needed. The description of this part of the electromagentic spectrum as waves is completeley satisfying. In turn, in the range of cosmic radiation, the description of photons as "particles" is sufficient. However, this may not be intrinsic basic physics but caused by the choice of detectors. Radio detectors are solid metal rods - antennae. The energy density and the wavelength of a radio photon are much smaller than that of the antenna. In the range of cosmic radiation, the detectors are essentially single atoms. The energy density of such a photon is much higher, the wavelength much smaller. The primary process of photon detection at optical wavelengths detectors usually occcurs at a single atom, a limited group of atoms or a band in a solid state detector. There, the energy density is comparable to the energy density of the detected photon. Depending on the detailed conditions, a wave or a beam of particles is perceived.