Abstract
Photons in interferometers manifest the functional ability to simultaneously navigate both paths through the device, but eventually appear at only one outlet. How this relates to the physical behaviour of the particle is still ambiguous, even though mathematical representation of the problem is adequate. This paper applies a non-local hidden-variable (NLHV) solution, in the form of the Cordus theory, to explain photon path dilemmas in the Mach–Zehnder (MZ) interferometer. The findings suggest that the partial mirrors direct the two reactive ends of the Cordus photon structures to different legs of the apparatus, depending on the energisation state of the photon. Explanations are provided for a single photon in the interferometer in the default, open-path, and sample modes. The apparent intelligence in the system is not because the photon knows which path to take, but rather because the MZ interferometer is a finely-tuned photon-sorting device that auto-corrects for randomness in the frequency phase to direct the photon to a specific detector. The principles also explain other tunnelling phenomena involving barriers. Thus, navigation dilemmas in the MZ interferometer may be explained in terms of physical realism after all.
Highlights
Particles show attributes of wave-particle duality behaviour in interferometer devices.The behaviour manifests as a functional ability of the photon to simultaneously navigate both paths through the device, but eventually appear at only one outlet
From the perspective of classical physics, and the philosophical position of physical realism, there are conceptual difficulties reconciling the path navigation behaviour with notions of particle composition. By this we do not mean that there is any lack of mathematical representation of the problem, but rather that there is value in seeking ontologically richer perspectives grounded in physical realism
The Cordus theory predicts a specific structure for fundamental particles
Summary
The behaviour manifests as a functional ability of the photon to simultaneously navigate both paths through the device, but eventually appear at only one outlet. From the perspective of classical physics, and the philosophical position of physical realism, there are conceptual difficulties reconciling the path navigation behaviour with notions of particle composition. By this we do not mean that there is any lack of mathematical representation of the problem, but rather that there is value in seeking ontologically richer perspectives grounded in physical realism
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