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Journal of High Energy Physics Gravitation and Cosmology

Experimental Proof of the Empty Waves Existence

Vladimir A. Skrebnev, Maria V. Polski

Published Jan 1, 2025• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.4236/jhepgc.2025.112026

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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.
According to the de Broglie pilot wave theory, a pilot wave which is empty of photons is still capable of physical effects like induced coherence. We have carried out an experiment to test this prediction. The experiment involves interference of photons produced by down-conversion in two nonlinear crystals and depends on the mutual coherence induced between the two signal beams by an idler. When the photon is removed from the idler by a beam splitter, it is found that the resulting ``empty pilot wave'' no longer induces coherence. This violates at least the Selleri-Croca version of the de Broglie pilot wave theory makes the physical reality of the corresponding pilot wave doubtful.
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