Abstract
In this paper, a realistic interpretation (REIN) of the wave function in quantum mechanics is briefly presented. We demonstrate that in the REIN, the wave function of a microscopic object is its real existence rather than a mere mathematical description. Specifically, the quantum object can exist in disjointed regions of space just as the wave function is distributed, travels at a finite speed, and collapses instantly upon a measurement. Furthermore, we analyze the single-photon interference in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) using the REIN. Based on this, we propose and experimentally implement a generalized delayed-choice experiment, called the encounter-delayed-choice experiment, where the second beam splitter is decided whether or not to insert at the encounter of two sub-waves along the arms of the MZI. In such an experiment, the parts of the sub-waves, which do not travel through the beam splitter, show a particle nature, whereas the remaining parts interfere and thus show a wave nature. The predicted phenomenon is clearly demonstrated in the experiment, thus supporting the REIN idea.
Highlights
The wave-particle duality is a central concept of quantum mechanics and has been strikingly illustrated in the well-known Wheeler’s delayed-choice gedanken experiments [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
We have presented the realistic interpretation (REIN) of quantum mechanics
In the REIN, the wave function is the real existence of a quantum object
Summary
The wave-particle duality is a central concept of quantum mechanics and has been strikingly illustrated in the well-known Wheeler’s delayed-choice gedanken experiments [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. The interference fringes are observed as a modulation of the detection probabilities of the detectors D1 and D2 This implies that the photon travels along both arms of the MZI and behaves as a wave. If BS2 is absent (open configuration), a click in only one of the two detectors with probability 1/2, independent of φ, is associated with a given path, indicating that the photon travels along a single arm and behaves as a particle Such an experiment concludes that quantum systems exhibit wave or particle behavior depending on the configuration of the measurement apparatus. A single photon simultaneously exhibits a wave nature and a particle nature This is equivalent to the QDC experiment, wherein the controlled-insertion of the second beam splitter serves as a controlled unitary gate that produces the superposed quantum state. This can be explained in terms of the duality quantum computing framework in refs. [27,28,29], as in ref. [12]
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