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Journal of High Energy Physics Gravitation and Cosmology

Wave-Particle Duality: Particle Always Remains Particle and Its Wave Function Always Remains Wave

Sarma N. Gullapalli

Published Jan 1, 2023• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

On the question of wave-particle duality, from the historic Bohr-Einstein debates a century ago, to this day, the view expressed in Niels Bohr’s Complementarity Principle has become well established, confirmed by numerous experiments: If the observation is for wave nature, then the particle changes to wave, and if the observation is for particle nature, then the particle remains particle. However, recently this view has been challenged. With proof based on the definition of wave function, it has been shown that particle always remains particle and its wave function always remains wave, no mysterious change from particle to wave and vice versa.

DOI
10.4236/jhepgc.2023.93049

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On the question of wave-particle duality, from the historic Bohr-Einstein debates a century ago, to this day, the view expressed in Niels Bohr’s Complementarity Principle has become well established, confirmed by numerous experiments: If the observation is for wave nature, then the particle changes to wave, and if the observation is for particle nature, then the particle remains particle. However, recently this view has been challenged. With proof based on the definition of wave function, it has been shown that particle always remains particle and its wave function always remains wave, no mysterious change from particle to wave and vice versa.
Early on, Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr heatedly debated wave-particle duality. To explain duality Bohr postulated his principle of complementarity, which is now widely accepted, but has mystifying metaphysical implications. Albert Einstein disagreed. Richard Feynman called it the “only mystery�? in quantum mechanics. Ingenious experiments including those using entanglement have confirmed Bohr’s complementarity. In this paper a new Duality Theorem is presented with proof which explains duality with particle always remaining particle and wave always remaining wave throughout, without using wave-particle complementarity or “which way�? (welcher-weg) observation. We explain results of reported experiments by showing the equivalence: Coherence and alignment ≡ Interference ≡ No “which way�? observation; No coherence or alignment ≡ No interference ≡ “which way�? observation That is, complementarity is redundant; conventional criteria of alignment and coherence alone suffice for interference. Our explanation does not require that photon somehow “know�? about the test setup or “which way�? observation and change its behavior from particle to wave and vice versa. No new assumptions are made, only new reasoning. In the context of entanglement we also help explain non-local action at a distance, and rephrase Albert Einstein’s unanswered question “Is quantum mechanics complete?�? at a more fundamental level.
To explain Young’s Double Slit Experiment Niels Bohr postulated his Complementarity Principle according to which if the observation is for interference pattern the particle will change to wave. Albert Einstein had objected: how can inanimate particle know what the observation is about? Experiments have confirmed Bohr’s Complementarity Principle. Upon investigation, the author was able to explain all experiments without invoking Complementarity Principle, using only coherence and alignment considerations. This research recently culminated in revolutionary finding by the author, that particle always remains particle and its wave function always remains wave, no mysterious change from particle to wave or vice-versa and published a paper in the Journal of High Energy Physics and Cosmology (JHEPGC), 9, 596 – 601, widely acclaimed by readership and reviewers. It restores objectivity to science and opens new vistas of research developing new concepts, advancing science.
A well-known mystery in quantum mechanics is wave–particle duality: Is an electron a point mass or a physical wave? What is the physical meaning of its wave function? About a hundred years ago, there was a famous debate between Bohr and Einstein on this topic. Their question is still open today. This paper reviews a new theoretical framework to address this problem. Here, it is hypothesized that both photons and electrons are quantized excitation waves of the vacuum, the physical properties of which can be modeled based on the Maxwell theory. Using the method of Helmholtz decomposition, one can show that the wave function of the particle is associated with an electric vector potential called “ Z”, which plays the role of basic field for the excitation wave. Using this framework, the quantum wave equations can be derived based on a quantization of the Maxwell theory. This work suggests that, the quantum wave function truly represents a physical wave; the wave packet looks like a “particle” only in the macroscopic view. Because the vacuum excitation obeys the principle of all-or-none, the probability of detecting this “particle” is related to the wave function as suggested in the Copenhagen interpretation.
The notion of wave–particle duality remains one of the most debated subjects in the history of quantum physics. The most famous debate on the subject occurred between Bohr and Einstein. In this work, we revisit the wave–particle duality in the Bohr–Einstein debate from the viewpoint of the recently established duality-entanglement relation. We show that the duality-entanglement relation can provide a valuable framework for quantitative analysis of the Einstein's gedanken double-slit experiment and clarify some of its fundamental aspects.
Updating the wave-particle duality Maria C. Bosca e-mail: bosca@ugr.es Departamento de Fisica Atomica, Molecular y Nuclear Universidad de Granada E-18071. Granada Spain The wave-particle-duality, the fundamental component of the new quantum formalism in Bohr’s opinion, must be reformulated by incorporating the results of some experiments accomplished in the last decades of twentieth century. The Bohr´s complementarity principle stated the mutual exclusiveness and joint full completeness of the two (classical) descriptions of quantum systems; after Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen’paper, the wave-particle duality, or wave-particle complementarity, could be expressed by stating that it is impossible to build up an experimental arrangement in which we observe at the same time both corpuscular and wave aspects. In a two-slit experiment, they would correspond, respectively, to the which-way knowledge and the observation of interference pattern. Bohr showed this mutual exclusivity in numerous examples , and linked it to the unavoidable disturbance inherent in any measurement event. In quantum mechanical formalism, the complementarity principle has a clear mathematical expression: two observables are complementary if precise knowledge of one of them implies that all possible outcomes of the other are equally probable; their extension to classical concepts (as wave and particle) is not concerned. In 1991 Scully et al published a variant of the two-slit experiment that incorporates two micromasers cavities and a laser beam to provide which-path information without net momentum transferred during the interaction ; the impossibility of know which slit an atom went through and still observe the interference fringes is preserved by the establishing of quantum correlations between the measuring apparatus and the system being observed. They claimed that complementarity, of which wave-particle duality would be to them a manifestation, is more fundamental than the uncertainty principle . In 1996 B-G. Englert, following an approach originally due to Wooters and Zurek , derived , without making use of Heisenberg’s uncertainty relation, an inequality that quantifies the mutual compatibility relation between fringe visibility and which-way information. The inequality, that they denominated as “interferometric duality”, has the expression D^2 + V^2 ≤ 1, where D stands for the distinguishability of the ways and V for the fringe visibility; both of them are mathematical expressions that can be measured to check experimentally the inequality . Today, it is clear that intermediate particle-wave behaviours exist and, in addition to that, there are single experiments in which both classical wave-like and particle-like behaviours are showed total and simultaneously on an individual system. For instance, in the Bose’s double-prism experiment , tunnelling and perfect anticoincidence were observed in single photon states. Consequently, the meaning of the wave-particle duality must incorporate the simultaneous use of the two classical descriptions in the interpretation of experiments, loosing their original mutual exclusivity , which is incorporated as an extreme case in the new interferometric duality, a continuous quantum concept . The wave-particle duality, therefore, must be formulated as an interpretative addition to quantum mechanics, to which is possible to renounce if any pretension of visualize quantum phenomena in terms of classical concepts and intuitions is abandoned.