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Aristotle, Heisenberg, and the Non-Locality and Non-Temporality of a Single Photon

A. Driessen

Published Feb 28, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Within the framework of Aristotelian philosophy, the author presents an analysis of the exchange of energy by photons. These massless particles exhibit the most pronounced quantum behavior and pose serious challenges to classical physics. The arguments are based on the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and a number of Gedanken experiments on single photons. For illustration, experimental and numerical work on optical microresonators is discussed. These allow to assess the validity of Maxwell’s equations and to verify some of the Gedanken experiments. As a result of the discussion, one has to accept that the photon trajectory is causally influenced by the final state, which is separated in time and space from the initial state: non-locality and non-temporality.

DOI
10.32388/mgw0vj

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Within the framework of Aristotelian philosophy, the author presents an analysis of the exchange of energy by photons. These massless particles exhibit the most pronounced quantum behavior and pose serious challenges to classical physics. The arguments are based on the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and a number of Gedanken experiments on single photons. For illustration, experimental and numerical work on optical microresonators is discussed. These allow to assess the validity of Maxwell’s equations and to verify some of the Gedanken experiments. As a result of the discussion, one has to accept that the photon trajectory is causally influenced by the final state, which is separated in time and space from the initial state: non-locality and non-temporality.
Within the framework of Aristotelian philosophy, the author presents an analysis of the exchange of energy by photons. These massless particles exhibit the most pronounced quantum behavior, posing serious challenges to classical physics. The arguments are based on the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and several Gedanken experiments involving single photons. For illustration, experimental and numerical work on optical microresonators is discussed. These allow for the assessment of the validity of Maxwell’s equations and the verification of some of the Gedanken experiments. As a result of the discussion, one must accept that the photon trajectory is causally influenced by the final state, which is separated in time and space from the initial state, exhibiting non-locality and non-temporality.
Over the past three decades or so, experiments of the type called Gedanken have become real. Recall the Schrödinger quote from Chapter 8: “… we never experiment with just one electron or atom or (small) molecule.” This is no longer true. We can do experiments involving single atoms or molecules and even on single photons, and thus it becomes possible to demonstrate that the “ridiculous consequences” alluded to by Schrödinger are, in fact, quite real. We have already discussed some examples of single-photon experiments in Chapter 6, and in Chapter 10 we shall discuss experiments performed with single atoms and single trapped ions. In the present chapter, we shall elaborate further on experimental tests of fundamentals of quantum mechanics involving a small number of photons. By fundamental tests we mean tests of quantum mechanics against the predictions of local realistic theories (i.e. hidden variable theories). Specifically, we discuss optical experiments demonstrating violations of Bell's inequalities, violations originally discussed by Bell in the context of two spin-one-half particles. Such violations, if observed experimentally, falsify local realistic hidden-variable theories. Locality refers to the notion, familiar in classical physics, that there cannot be a causal relationship between events with space-like separations. That is, the events cannot be connected by any signal moving at, or less than, the speed of light; i.e. the events are outside the light-cone. But in quantum mechanics, it appears that nonlocal effects, effects seemly violating the classical notion of locality in a certain restricted sense, are possible.
Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity has the rare quality of being both a significant contribution to the philosophy of physics literature and a superb introduction for philosophers unacquainted with the field. Maudlin sets out to examine the implications for our understanding of the fundamental structure of space, time, and causation of what appears to be a mysterious action-at-a-distance observed in the quantum domain. Physicists and philosophers of physics have been grappling with these implications for the last half-century, and Maudlin does a remarkable job of elucidating central themes in the literature and clarifying conceptual confusions. Throughout the book, Maudlin draws out salient points from what can easily become a morass of scientific and philosophical technicalities. At the root of puzzles concerning relativity and quantum mechanics lie a few simple experimental facts. In an experimental setup in which quantum particles begin from a common source and travel in opposite directions, distant (spacelike separated) measurements of properties of the two particles are strangely correlated. These correlations have been observed, for example, in experiments which measure polarization properties of photons. A well-known theorem due to John S. (1964) expresses a constraint on the kind of correlations that measurement outcomes in this experimental setup (known as a Bell experiment) can display, in the absence of any communication between them. The surprise is that observed correlations violate Bell's theorem, meaning that the measurement events appear somehow to be influencing each other or to be otherwise connected. But there's the rub: in experiments, measurements are spacelike separated, which means they are too far apart for any force of nature travelling at or below the speed of light to traverse the distance between them in time. Faster-than-light influences seem to fly squarely (and rather quickly) in the face of everything Einstein taught us about the structure of space and time. As it is often understood, the special theory of relativity asserts that the speed of light in a vacuum is some sort of physical limit, and that matter, energy, signals, causal influence, and the like cannot travel faster than the speed of light. Do the
Many experimental results and theoretical reasonings on gedanken experiments suggest that quantum entities behave in a non-local . In order to make the discussion more precise, we propose an operational definition of non-locality . We discuss two examples of spin superposition experiments which illustrate the use of this definition. They show that quantum entities like a neutron or an atom are non-local. We make an analysis of the difficulty to imagine such non-local entities and to conciliate this non-locality with the locality of classical entities
Space and Time are essential ways by which humans think about their environment. The mathematical parameters associated with these concepts appear nearly in the same way in the formulation of both the classical and the quantum theories, but cer tainly not any more at the level of our intuitive understanding of their results. This paper aims to explain why it can be so, starting from an analysis of the way some basic principles are introduced in these theories. These principles are: localisation in space, isolation of a system, state of an isolated system, and causality. The problem of quantum non-locality is analysed again. It is shown that localising a microscopic entity can depend on the kind of localising experiment one performs. I give an example of an entity which will be considered as localised or alternatively as non-localised, depending on the localising experiment. I also discuss the ideas of time and of duration in quantum physics. I show that if duration can be properly defined for a statistical set of particles, it is not so for the individuals.