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Quantum optics experiment on the test of empty wave hypothesis

Vladimir A. Skrebnev

Published Dec 24, 2019• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The experiment measured the absorption of single photons by absorbers with various absorption coefficients, in one of the beams, after the photons interacted with the beam splitter. The measurements showed that the absorption corresponds to single photon traveling in either one or another beam. The measurements support the original empty wave hypothesis which has been advanced in a number of works.

DOI
10.31226/osf.io/9ay2c

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The experiment measured the absorption of single photons by absorbers with various absorption coefficients, in one of the beams, after the photons interacted with the beam splitter. The measurements showed that the absorption corresponds to single photon traveling in either one or another beam. The measurements support the original empty wave hypothesis which has been advanced in a number of works.
The appearance of a particle in a certain point in space, the full waves and the empty waves are considered as a consequence of subquantum processes. The experiment is described that measured the absorption of single photons by absorbers with various absorption coefficients, in one of the beams, after the photons interacted with the beam splitter. The measurements showed that the absorption corresponds to single photon traveling in either one or another beam. The results of our measurements and of single photon interference experiments, combined together, demonstrate the existence of the empty waves, that is, the excitations in the subquantum world, which do not contain a photon. We show that seemingly justified criticism of our interpretation of the experiment is not valid. New experiments are proposed to study single-photon interference involving an empty wave.
The appearance of a particle in a certain point in space, the full waves and the empty waves are considered as a consequence of subquantum processes. The experiment is described that measured the absorption of single photons by absorbers with various absorption coefficients, in one of the beams, after the photons interacted with the beam splitter. The measurements showed that the absorption corresponds to single photon traveling in either one or another beam. The results of our measurements and of single photon interference experiments, combined together, demonstrate the existence of the empty waves, that is, the excitations in the subquantum world, which do not contain a photon. We show that seemingly justified criticism of our interpretation of the experiment is not valid. New experiments are proposed to study single-photon interference involving an empty wave.
The production of maxima and minima by the superposition of two or more light signals provides fundamental support for the wave nature of light. This result is based on the study of wave interference phenomena which remains the only approach to explain the production of those maxima and minima. In a system that is prepared to work with only one photon at a time, any detector can signal only one or zero. In 1986, a rigorously controlled experiment was designed by Grangier, G. Roger, and A. Aspect, [Europhys Lett. 1(4), p. 173, 1986] that guaranteed a single-photon beam. The explanation of the experimental results implied the interference of the wave function of a single-photon with itself. Thus, the explanation of interference that is accepted for an ensemble of photons was assumed to be valid for a single photon. In this study, we prepare a Mach-Zehnder interferometer using the same type of beam splitters used by Grangier et al. to test the assumption mentioned above. Our results allow us to explain the results of Grangier et al. because of the interaction between light and the beam splitters. Our results also verify that their wave interpretation of the results is not valid. Here, we present the essential findings of the extensive experimental evidence that supports our ideas.
When a quantum object -- a particle as we call it in a non-rigorous way -- is described by a multi-branched wave- function, with the corresponding wave-packets occupying separated regions of the time-space, a frequently asked question is whether the quantum object is actually contained in only one of these wave-packets. If the answer is positive, then the other wave-packets are called in literature empty waves. The wave-packet containing the object is called a full wave, and is the only one that would produce a recording in a detector. A question immediately arising is whether the empty waves may also have an observable effect. Different works were dedicated to the elucidation of this question. None of them proved that the hypothesis of full/empty waves is correct - it may be that the Nature is indeed non-deterministic and the quantum object is not confined to one region of the space-time. All the works that proved that the empty waves have an effect, in fact, proved that if there exist full and empty waves, then the latter may have an observable effect. This is also the purpose and the limitation of the present work. What is shown here is that if the hypothesis is true, the empty waves have an influence. An experiment is indicated which reveals this influence. The analysis of the experiment is according to the quantum formalism. This experiment has the advantage of being more intuitive and practically more feasible than a previous proposal also in agreement with the quantum formalism. However, the presently proposed experiment also shows that the quantum theory is not in favor of the above hypothesis.
The familiar input-output relations for an optical beam splitter are generalized to allow for linear absorption by the medium forming the mirror. Beam-splitter losses generally affect the noise levels detectable in experiments involving nonclassical light. When employed to investigate two-photon interference effects, a lossy beam splitter can lead to apparent nonlinear absorption, which, in the most extreme case, leads to either both or neither of the photons being absorbed. The degree of second-order coherence of antibunched light can be maintained on transmission through the beam splitter but any amplitude squeezing in the incident light is degraded.