Quantum Aspects of Light Propagation

Vlasta Peřinová, A. Lukš

Origin of Macroscopic Approach.- Macroscopic Theories and Their Applications.- Microscopic Theories.- Microscopic Models as Related to Macroscopic Descriptions.- Periodic and Disordered Media.- Conclusions.

Izo I. Abram

Ghenadie N. Mardari

"Our Universe does not have a real cosmic medium". "Light is fundamentally dual, comprising a wave aspect and a particle aspect". These two statements are jointly present in most physics textbooks, but they are logically incompatible. The argument against mediation is based on the outcome of the Michelson-Morley experiment. It only works under the assumption that light is a running wave in the ether, similar to a sound wave in the air. Without such an assumption, invariance only proves that the speed of light is not the speed of a wave. If light has a dual nature, then the speed of light is the speed of the particle aspect. In quantum mechanics, it can be described as the speed of the photon. Classical models would suggest that the speed of light is equal to the rate of mutual generation of electric and magnetic fields across space. Alternatively, the speed of light can be described as the speed of a train of fields, propagating like a stream of particles. There is no room for running waves in these models, except as a constituent element of static fields. For a coherent account of our knowledge, the second statement should be preserved, and the first one should be rejected.

Alexander A. Lisyansky, E. S. Andrianov, Alexey P. Vinogradov +1 more

Daegene Song

The similarities between the hypothetical medium of light propagation, the aether, and the Dirac-type negative sea are discussed. In particular, it is argued that when the negative sea is identified as the observer's reference frame, it may be equivalent to the medium of light waves. In fact, this equivalence is related to the natural interpretation of the wave-particle duality where the light wave is propagating through the reference frame of the observer, i.e., the wave-like property, while the particle-like aspect is shown as the eigenvalue outcome of the measurement. This result lies within standard quantum theory, yet removes the weirdness of the wave-particle duality that existed previously.