Can the hypothesis 'photon interferes only with itself be reconciled with superposition of light from multiple beams or sources?

Chandrasekhar Roychoudhuri*, Narasimha S. Prasad, Qing Peng

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Any superposition effect as measured (SEM) by us is the summation of simultaneous stimulations experienced by a detector due to the presence of multiple copies of a detectee each carrying different values of the same parameter. We discus the cases with light beams carrying same frequency for both diffraction and multiple beam Fabry-Perot interferometer and also a case where the two superposed light beams carry different frequencies. Our key argument is that if light really consists of indivisible elementary particle, photon, then it cannot by itself create superposition effect since the state vector of an elementary particle cannot carry more than one values of any parameter at the same time. Fortunately, semiclassical model explains all light induced interactions using quantized atoms and classical EM wave packet. Classical physics, with its deeper commitment to Reality Ontology, was better prepared to nurture the emergence of Quantum Mechanics and still can provide guidance to explore nature deeper if we pay careful attention to successful classical formulations like Huygens-Fresnel diffraction integral.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Nature of Light
Subtitle of host publicationWhat Are Photons
DOIs
StatePublished - 2007
Externally publishedYes

Publication series

NameProceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Volume6664
ISSN (Print)0277-786X

Keywords

  • Bell's inequality
  • Huygens-Fresnel principle
  • Reality ontology
  • Single photon interference
  • Superposition effects

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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