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Physics Essays

Decoding the wave particle duality

Carlos López

Published Sep 13, 2021• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The action reaction principle (ARP), a fundamental ingredient of Physics, is taken for granted, because it is automatically fulfilled along the ordinary Hamiltonian, classical or quantum, time evolution law. But in quantum mechanics, there is an extraordinary evolution law, the projection of state rule along quantum measurements, which is not Hamiltonian. Consequently, the ARP is not automatically fulfilled along quantum measurements, and it must be checked case by case. Surprisingly, very simple quantum measurements, both theoretical processes and experiments, show an apparent violation of the ARP, so that the hidden reaction must be found. In the analyzed experiment, the ARP is restored if some new system, the quantum or de Broglie wave, exists and locally interacts with the detector. There cannot be interaction at a spatial distance between the particle (photon or electron) and the obstacle‐detector.

DOI
10.4006/0836-1398-34.3.410

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The action reaction principle (ARP), a fundamental ingredient of Physics, is taken for granted, because it is automatically fulfilled along the ordinary Hamiltonian, classical or quantum, time evolution law. But in quantum mechanics, there is an extraordinary evolution law, the projection of state rule along quantum measurements, which is not Hamiltonian. Consequently, the ARP is not automatically fulfilled along quantum measurements, and it must be checked case by case. Surprisingly, very simple quantum measurements, both theoretical processes and experiments, show an apparent violation of the ARP, so that the hidden reaction must be found. In the analyzed experiment, the ARP is restored if some new system, the quantum or de Broglie wave, exists and locally interacts with the detector. There cannot be interaction at a spatial distance between the particle (photon or electron) and the obstacle‐detector.
The action reaction principle is violated in the standard formulation of Quantum Mechanics, so that its phase space is incomplete. Moreover, projection of state of a quantum system under indirect measurement, when there are alternative virtual paths and one of them is discarded by negative detection implies, according to the action reaction principle, a reaction on the detector, although its macroscopic state does not change. If all interactions are local, mediated by fields with relativistically causal evolution, some system, different from the particle which follows another path, must locally interact with the detector. Relativistic locality and the action reaction principle predict the existence of de Broglie fields. A formulation of Quantum Mechanics in extended Hilbert spaces is presented, in which kinematic and dynamical representations of physical magnitudes are distinguished.
There are many evidences in Quantum Mechanics about the existence of de Broglie waves: the two-slit experiment, self interference when a particle can follow two or more paths that converge, etc.There is not direct evidence of its existence because we use exclusively particle detectors.This paper presents a new evidence of the existence of de Broglie waves grounded in the action reaction principle.The action reaction principle is a fundamental ingredient of Physics: when two systems interact both change of state (i.e., they depart from the free, isolated evolution path in the phase space).A simple experiment using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer is analysed.A representation of the evolution in the phase space for different cases (isolated system and interaction with a detector) is shown.By applying the action reaction principle we show that some subsystem, different from the corpuscular photon, must follow one arm of the interferometer when we can infer that the photon follows the other arm.There cannot be interaction between the photodetector in one arm and the photon following the other arm.This new subsystem would be a distributed de Broglie wave.
The de Broglie-Bohm “pilot-wave” theory replaces the paradoxical wave-particle duality of ordinary quantum theory with a more mundane and literal kind of duality: each individual photon or electron comprises a quantum wave (evolving in accordance with the usual quantum mechanical wave equation) and a particle that, under the influence of the wave, traces out a definite trajectory. The definite particle trajectory allows the theory to account for the results of experiments without the usual recourse to additional dynamical axioms about measurements. Instead, one need simply assume that particle detectors click when particles arrive at them. This alternative understanding of quantum phenomena is illustrated here for two elementary textbook examples of one-dimensional scattering and tunneling. We introduce a novel approach to reconcile standard textbook calculations (made using unphysical plane-wave states) with the need to treat such phenomena in terms of normalizable wave packets. This approach allows for a simple but illuminating analysis of the pilot-wave theory's particle trajectories and an explicit demonstration of the equivalence of the pilot-wave theory predictions with those of ordinary quantum theory.
Quantum mechanics is characterized by several distinctive features: (1) wave–particle duality, (2) the uncertainty principle, (3) superposition of states, (4) wave function collapse, (5) the tunneling effect, (6) quantum entanglement, and (7) the dominance of probability. Proposed interpretations include the Copenhagen interpretation, the de Broglie–Bohm pilot-wave theory, and the many-worlds interpretation. Despite sustained debate, no unified consensus has emerged. A central obstacle may lie in the unresolved ambiguity over whether a quantum entity is fundamentally a wave or a particle. Although photons and electrons exhibit wave-like and particle-like properties, the concepts of “wave” and “particle” are inherently mutually exclusive. This paper proposes that the true nature of a quantum is a quantized wave interacting at a single spatial point. Based on this premise, the study investigates the vacuum structure and interactions, together with the relationship between wave function collapse and the conservation of physical quantities. The mechanisms underlying the photoelectric effect and quantum tunneling are reexamined, along with the double-slit and delayed-choice quantum eraser experiments. By treating photons and electrons as quantized waves confined to point interactions, this work demonstrates that puzzling quantum behaviors, long considered obstacles to a coherent understanding of quantum mechanics, admit straightforward explanations.
To understand quantum phenomena, namely, the particle-wave duality, in a causal relational way, a complex nonlinear process, in which a minor action may, under adequate conditions, give rise to a huge reaction, was proposed by de Broglie. The nonlinear process is mediated by the guiding or pilot wave principle, or as is now named by the principle of eurhythmy. This process rejects the ontic status of the Cartesian linear method in which the whole is assumed to be the simple linear combination of the parts and the action is always presumed to be equal and opposite to the reaction. The constituent parts of the whole are supposed to be naturally expected to maintain their own identity in every conceivable interacting situation.