Two well-known conceptual conundrums of quantum mechanics referred to as instantaneous action-at-a-distance and inseparable waveparticle character are tackled using the principle of least action. Since any measurement is an action, it is reasoned that the spin of a particle just as the polarization of a photon remain indetermined for the observer until at least a quantum of action flows from the object to the observer. The detection places the quantity in question in the observer’s frame of reference. This reference frame for one photon will instantaneously apply also to the polarization of the other photon provided that the two photons have not been perturbed ever since the correlated pair emerged from a radiative decay. The wave-particle duality of a single photon or an electron, that the double-slit experiment demonstrates, can also be understood in terms of actions. The energy density difference between the source of particles and their sink at the detector is a driving force that will cause flows of energy densities such as photons or electrons to propagate down along the paths of least action. Since no space is empty of energy density, the propagating particle as a flow of density will invariably perturb surrounding densities. When the driving density difference including the perturbation is leveling off via two or more paths, the ensuing flows of densities depend on each other. Therefore the flows through the two slits can never be separated from each other which will manifest as the inseparable particle-wave character.
Two well-known conceptual conundrums of quantum mechanics referred to as instantaneous action-at-a-distance and inseparable waveparticle character are tackled using the principle of least action. Since any measurement is an action, it is reasoned that the spin of a particle just as the polarization of a photon remain indetermined for the observer until at least a quantum of action flows from the object to the observer. The detection places the quantity in question in the observer’s frame of reference. This reference frame for one photon will instantaneously apply also to the polarization of the other photon provided that the two photons have not been perturbed ever since the correlated pair emerged from a radiative decay. The wave-particle duality of a single photon or an electron, that the double-slit experiment demonstrates, can also be understood in terms of actions. The energy density difference between the source of particles and their sink at the detector is a driving force that will cause flows of energy densities such as photons or electrons to propagate down along the paths of least action. Since no space is empty of energy density, the propagating particle as a flow of density will invariably perturb surrounding densities. When the driving density difference including the perturbation is leveling off via two or more paths, the ensuing flows of densities depend on each other. Therefore the flows through the two slits can never be separated from each other which will manifest as the inseparable particle-wave character.
Two well-known conceptual conundrums of quantum mechanics referred to as instantaneous action-at-a-distance and inseparable wave-particle character are tackled using the principle of least action. Since any measurement is an action, it is reasoned that the spin of a particle just as the polarization of a photon remain indetermined for the observer until at least a quantum of action flows from the object to the observer. The detection places the quantity in question in the observer's frame of reference. This reference frame for one photon will instantaneously apply also to the polarization of the other photon provided that the two photons have not been perturbed ever since the correlated pair emerged from a radiative decay. The wave-particle duality of a single photon or an electron, that the double-slit experiment demonstrates, can also be understood in terms of actions. The energy density difference between the source of particles and their sink at the detector is a driving force that will cause flows of energy densities such as photons or electrons to propagate down along the paths of least action. Since no space is empty of energy density, the propagating particle as a flow of density will invariably perturb surrounding densities. When the driving density difference including the perturbation is leveling off via two or more paths, the ensuing flows of densities depend on each other. Therefore the flows through the two slits can never be separated from each other which will manifest as the inseparable particle-wave character. Keywords: action-at-a-distance; double slit experiment; energy dispersal; evolution; quantum paradoxes; the principle of least action
Bell experiments have confirmed that quantum entanglement is an inseparable correlation but there is no faster-than-light influence between two entangled particles when a local measurement is performed. However, how such an inseparable correlation is maintained and manifested when the two entangled particle are space-like separated is still not well understood. The recently proposed extended least action principle for quantum mechanics brings new insights to this question. By applying this principle, we show here that even though the inseparable correlation may be initially created by previous physical interaction between the two particles, the preservation and manifestation of such inseparable correlation are achieved through extremizing an information metric that measures the additional observable information of the bipartite system due to vacuum fluctuations. This is physically realized even though there is no further interaction when the two particles move apart, and the underlying vacuum fluctuations are local. In other words, the propagation of inseparable correlation in quantum theory is realized by an information requirement and through a local mechanism. An example of two entangled free particles described by Gaussian wave packets is provided to illustrate these results.
The puzzles of quantum mechanics are: 1. what is the medium for the photon and for the electron wave? i.e. what is waving? 2. particle interference pattern 3. observer effect. 4. entanglement. In Quantum Erasure and Double-Slit experiments, how does the emitter know to direct the photon two both slits or only to one slit? And how does the detector know where to detect the photons to form an interference pattern and not a bell-shaped (Gaussian) pattern or vice versa? This paper proposes a few, closely related, simple and subtle laws of nature governing quantum phenomena. Some of the findings in this paper are: 1. A photon is emitted in two steps: the creation of photon path and the emission of the photon 2. Although (almost) all of the energy of the photon is localized in space, the photon extends to infinity. An extremely small energy of the photon, which we call the 'precursor wave' in this paper, extends to infinity. The instant the photon is emitted, its precursor wave creates a path to infinity; it appears instantaneously in all its path to infinity, with infinitely small energy density. The precursor wave serves as the 'highway' for the propagation of the main energy packet. However, to conserve the principle of causality, we assume that the tip of the photon propagates at a speed billions times the speed of light. Thus, there are two speeds associated with the photon: the speed we know as c and the speed at which the photon length increases. 2. A photon will be emitted only towards an absorber. A photon is emitted by the interaction of the emitter and a detector. It is obvious that a photon will not be emitted if there is no emitter. Nor will a photon be emitted if there is no detector . Once a photon is emitted, however, it exists objectively, autonomously. The photon is emitted only after its path is determined by the interaction of the emitter and the absorber, at the instant of emission. 3. The photon energy will be concentrated where there is higher wave amplitude, i.e higher intensity of oscillation of electric and magnetic fields. This results in 'dragging' of the electromagnetic energy by the wave, hence eliminating the need for any medium. It is also proposed that single photon interference is a quantum phenomenon whereas two photon interference is a classical phenomenon. Similar laws hold for the electron. The 'medium' for the electron wave is the electron (the electron mass density field) itself. Where there is higher intensity of electron wave/oscillation, there will be higher electron mass density. This means that the electron wave 'drags' the electron with itself. Therefore, no exotic 'medium' is required for the photon and for the electron wave.
The Schrödinger's wave function can naturally be realized as an 'instantaneous resonant spatial mode' in which quantum particle moves and hence the Born's rule is derived after identifying its origin. This realization facilitates the visualization of `what's really going on?' in the Young's double-slit experiment which is known to be the central mystery of quantum mechanics. Also, an actual mechanism underlying the `spooky-action-at-a-distance', another mystery regarding the entangled quantum particles, is revealed. Wheeler's delayed choice experiments, delayed choice quantum eraser experiment and delayed choice entanglement swapping experiments are unambiguously and naturally explained at a single quantum level. The reality of Nature represented by the quantum mechanical formalism is conceptually intuitive and is independent of the measurement problem.
Field-Theoretic Explanation of Wave-Particle Duality—Unification of Particle Locality and the Wave Nature of the Perturbation Field This paper provides a physical explanation of the most central puzzle in quantum mechanics—wave-particle duality—without relying on "probability-amplitude collapse" or "nonlocal entanglement." This theory divides all matter in the universe into Nie-matter entities (massive, Staticity) and Ji-matter entities (massless, Dynamicity), and maintains that quantum objects (electrons, neutrons, etc.) are always localized Nie-matter entity particles. Their "wave behavior" originates from the particle's local perturbation of the Ji-matter field that already fills space during motion—the perturbation propagates in the form of a wave, produces an interference field when passing through the double slits, and the interference field in turn guides the particle's landing position. The particle always passes through only one slit, while the field passes through both slits simultaneously; interference is the behavior of the field, not the behavior of the particle. This mechanism naturally explains double-slit interference, the coexistence of neutron collisions and wave behavior, the disturbance of interference fringes by observation devices, and the variation of interference contrast with source offset and slit spacing. This paper further gives three falsifiable predictions: P6-1 (a decisive distinction between device field-strength disturbance and which-path information disturbance), P6-2A (the disturbance effect varies continuously with field strength), and P6-2B (an argument for the explanatory power of double-slit interference contrast—naturally derived from one mechanism vs. jointly explained by four independent concepts). Compared with mainstream theory, this theory does not need "wavefunction collapse," does not need "nonlocality," and does not need "many worlds"—it only needs to acknowledge: particles are localized, the field fills space, and the motion of particles is guided by the local field gradient.
Nonlocality arises from the unified “all or nothing” interactions of a spatially extended field quantum such as a photon or an electron.2 In the double-slit experiment with light, for example, each photon comes through both slits and arrives at the viewing screen as an extended but unified energy bundle or “field quantum.” When the photon interacts (randomly2) with the screen, field quantization requires it to alter its state instantaneously rather than gradually. Thus if the photon is absorbed, it must vanish or “collapse” nonlocally and instantaneously across a macroscopic portion of the screen, even across many kilometers in the case of interference patterns of light from a small distant star. The interaction instantly transfers the photons energy to a single atom of the screen. But a quantized field can contain any whole number of “excitations” (particles such as photons or electrons). If a single field quantum contains, say, two excitations, then generally the unified all-or-nothing character of quanta implies that any interaction of one excitation must also instantaneously affect the other excitation, regardless of the distance between them. The particles are then said to be “entangled” (see the “Background” section for a more precise definition of this term). Particles can become entangled by being created together in a single microscopic process, or by interacting with each other. Quantum entanglement is at least as fundamental as quantum uncertainty but is seldom mentioned in physics courses, although it has received broad attention recently in a wonderful book by Louisa Gilder.3 A recent paper in this journal presents entanglement in a manner that is useful for high school and college physics teachers.4 This paper builds on that presentation and looks at a different, more intuitive entanglement experiment that should be accessible to both scientists and nonscientists.