Abstract Scientific terms and concepts sometimes evolve so that their semantic meanings are changing, to better serve the purposes of their use in scientific practices. Acknowledging the importance of such a process provides a viewpoint on the role of wave-particle duality (WPD) in modern quantum optics and how it is connected to its historical role. The transformation of WPD into a quantitative and operationalised concept is approached here from the viewpoint of the role of WPD as a linguistic practice based on natural language in communicating about experiments and their results and designs. The perspective adopted is based on semantic change and variation of WPD as driven by its role as natural language expression in pursuing the epistemic and the pragmatic goals of the inquiry. This provides a perspective that connects the historical and contemporary roles of WPD through its pragmatic linguistic role. This perspective shifts the focus from philosophical realism-driven questions about WPD as related to the nature or behaviour of photons to questions of how that concept is used in practices of quantum optics research, for what purposes, and with what benefits.
Abstract Scientific terms and concepts sometimes evolve so that their semantic meanings are changing, to better serve the purposes of their use in scientific practices. Acknowledging the importance of such a process provides a viewpoint on the role of wave-particle duality (WPD) in modern quantum optics and how it is connected to its historical role. The transformation of WPD into a quantitative and operationalised concept is approached here from the viewpoint of the role of WPD as a linguistic practice based on natural language in communicating about experiments and their results and designs. The perspective adopted is based on semantic change and variation of WPD as driven by its role as natural language expression in pursuing the epistemic and the pragmatic goals of the inquiry. This provides a perspective that connects the historical and contemporary roles of WPD through its pragmatic linguistic role. This perspective shifts the focus from philosophical realism-driven questions about WPD as related to the nature or behaviour of photons to questions of how that concept is used in practices of quantum optics research, for what purposes, and with what benefits.
Wave-particle duality (WPD) of photons is a recurrent topic in science education research in teaching and learning the quantum behaviour of light. In this commentary, we discuss how WPD has been approached in science teaching and science education literature, and how it leads to ontological challenges in searching for the real “nature of photons”. We suggest that WPD can serve as a starting point of teaching quantum physics if we want to use natural language in discussing experimental results (as Bohr intended it to be). That way WPD can also be approached as part of modern quantum optics as a natural language expression to communicate information acquired in experiments. Such an ap-proach includes a contemporary understanding of quantitative WPD as a means to speak about features of photons as quantum states, not as entity-like objects. Content is discussed at a level appropriate for physics teacher education.
Quantum objects, sometimes called quantons, often display a characteristic feature referred to as wave-particle duality (WPD). Lately, this and other quantum traits have been subjected to intensive research, mainly motivated by the development of quantum information science. As a consequence, the scopes of some concepts have been extended, and it has been realized that they are not in the exclusive domain of quantum physics. This is particularly clear in optics, where qubits may show up as Jones vectors and WPD has its counterpart as wave-ray duality. WPD was originally addressed by focusing on a single qubit, which was afterwards supplemented with a second one playing the role of a path-marker in an interferometer setup. Fringe contrast, a sign of wave-like behavior, was proved to be diminished in connection with the effectiveness of the marker, the inducer of particle-like behavior. Going from bipartite to tripartite states is a natural and necessary step towards better understanding of WPD. This step is what we have accomplished in this work. We report some constraints ruling WPD for tripartite systems, as well as their experimental display with single photons.
Fundamental notions of quantum physics are included in introductory university curricula, in physics teacher training, and even in secondary education, both in Argentina and in various other countries worldwide. Among these fundamental concepts is wave-particle duality (WPD), a key concept and a gateway to the quantum world. This paper presents a critical review of the literature on WPD in specialized journals on physics education and science education at the local, regional, and international context, aiming to gather the most relevant findings regarding its teaching and learning. Preliminary results indicate that these findings can be categorized based on their primary purpose into four categories: Teaching WPD, Learning WPD, Historical and Epistemological Reflections on WPD and Reviews on the Teaching and Learning of Quantum Physics (including WPD).
Abstract On the Internet, Quantum Mechanics is an area of physics that is shrouded in misinterpretations. In this scenario, scientific outreach may serve as an instrument for disseminating scientific knowledge. Especially in this context, it is important that people’s learning encompasses more than the meanings of concepts and laws, involving aspects related to the ‘why’ and ‘for what purpose’ the knowledge was and is constructed. We consider these aspects as components of the sense, the connotative and subjective dimension of conceptual learning which encompasses a positioning of an individual towards a concept and its relevance in the physics framework. Motivated by this, in the present study, we investigated the senses ascribed to the concept of wave–particle duality (WPD) by 121 participants in a two-day (five-hour) science outreach minicourse in the double-slit experiment. Drawing on the ideas of Franco et al (2023, Cadernos de Pesquisa do Programa de Pós-graduação em Ensino de Física da UFRGS (Research Notebooks from the Postgraduate Program in Physics Teaching at UFRGS), Pimenta Cultural Editors S/A), we posit sensemaking as a type of cognitive effort to overcome a situation, viewed as a self-regulatory phenomenon wherein individuals self-observe, self-evaluate, and self-react to the situation to achieve a certain goal. In addition to identifying the senses attributed to the concept of WPD, we assessed the relationships between these senses and participants’ performance in a standardized test of this concept, as well as their educational background and field of study. Data were collected using questionnaires answered before and at the end of the course. The senses ascribed to the concept of WPD were investigated through similarity and cluster analysis based on responses to essay questions. The relationships among these senses, questionnaire performance, and educational background were evaluated using non-parametric statistical tests. We infer two senses attributed to wave–particle duality: (1) WPD is a basic and fundamental concept that impacts the way we comprehend the essence of nature, and (2) WPD is a very advanced concept restricted to the field of Quantum Mechanics. A statistically significant correlation (0.26 was identified between the senses attributed and participants’ performance on the standardized test, suggesting that the sense ascribed to a concept and performance in questions requiring its mobilization are overlapping elements but constitute two distinct dimensions of learning that need to be assessed simultaneously.
This thesis is a study about the insights and challenges provided by the concept of wave-
particle duality for the understanding of physical entities. I specifically analyse the duality
claim of photons and the related interference phenomena. To begin, I explore several
notions of duality found in mathematics and various branches of science and present the
similarities and differences amidst them. After this, with regard to wave-particle duality of
radiation, I highlight the plurality associated with this concept based on a few important
interpretations of duality. I then focus on the wave-particle duality claim about photons
articulated in the context of two experiments: the anti-correlation experiment and photons’
behaviour in the Mach-Zehnder interferometer experiment. I argue that this claim can
neither be substantiated through the complementarity principle nor by claiming that
photons behave analogously to classical waves and particles. This detailed examination
of the experiments brings to the forefront yet another confusion about photons that
I subsequently evaluate. I discuss the controversy concerning the interpretation of the
interference phenomenon of photons and identify the sources of this confusion. Through
these arguments and conclusions drawn in this thesis, I demonstrate how philosophical
analysis is crucial for the understanding of scientific entities.
Wave-particle duality has been one of the guiding concepts in the development of modern physics.Even though duality has been extensively studied, the concept possessing multiple definitions has not received due attention.The article, to begin with, establishes the plurality associated with duality by highlighting the presence of multiple interpretations in the history of quantum mechanics and also demonstrates how prominent scientific pedagogic texts, drawing from these different threads of development, differ in the depiction of duality.This plurality has not been recognized for several reasons.Among these, the article criticizes the simplistic historical depiction of duality by showing how the narration of this concept undergoing linear development glosses over crucial historical details.Following that, the nature of the concerned plurality is analysed by comparing it with other kinds of plurality found in science.The article concludes by emphasising the relevance of this discussion for the current scientific research and for the pedagogy of quantum mechanics.