Related papers: About empty waves, their effect, and the quantum t…
When a quantum system is described by a wave function consisting in a couple of wave-packets, each wave packet traveling on a separate path, a commonly asked question is why at a given time only one of the wave packets is able to trigger a…
The hypothesis of empty/full waves considers that a click in a detector is triggered by a property carried by the wave-packet that impinges on that detector. Different authors call this property particle, but according to the terminology of…
Within the class of ontological interpretations of quantum theory where a physical system comprises a particle and a field (wavefunction) guiding it, an empty wave is a segment of the wavefunction not containing the particle. We examine the…
We assume that particles are point-like objects even when not observed. We report on the consequences of our assumption within the realm of quantum theory. An important consequence is the necessity of vacuum fields to account for particle…
We summarize the theoretical description of wave packets on molecular energy levels. We review the various quantum mechanical effects which can be studied and the models that can be verified on this system. This justifies our claim that the…
A reasonable explanation of the confounding wave-particle duality of matter is presented in terms of the reality of the wave nature of a particle. In this view a quantum particle is an objectively real wave packet consisting of irregular…
The quantum object is in general considered as displaying both wave and particle nature. By particle is understood an item localized in a very small volume of the space, and which cannot be simultaneously in two disjoint regions of the…
Several situations, in which an empty wave causes an observable effect, are reviewed. They include an experiment showing ``surrealistic trajectories'' proposed by Englert et al. and protective measurement of the density of the quantum…
A textbook interpretation of quantum physics is that quantum objects can be described in a particle or a wave picture, depending on the operations and measurements performed. Beyond this widely held believe, we demonstrate in this…
Although quantum mechanics is one of our most successful physical theories, there has been a long-standing debate about the interpretation of the wave function---the central object of the theory. Two prominent views are that (i) it…
In a recent paper a mathematical model for quantum measurement was presented. The phenomenon of wave particle duality, which is introduced in every beginning course of quantum theory, can be explained using this model. Although it is a…
The nature of quantum waves, whether they are real physical waves or, on the contrary, mere probability waves, has been a very controversial theme since the beginning of quantum theory. Here we present some possible experiments that may…
Until recently, wave-particle duality has been thought of as quantum principle without a counterpart in classical physics. This belief was challenged after (i) finding that average dynamics of a classical particle in strong inhomogeneous…
A century on from the development of quantum theory, the interpretation of a quantum state is still discussed. If a physicist claims to have produced a system with a particular wave function, does this represent directly a physical wave of…
Is the wave function a physical reality traveling through our apparatus? Is it a real wave, or it is only a mathematical tool for calculating probabilities of results of measurements? Different interpretations of the quantum mechanics (QM)…
Several new physics experiments in 1998 were performed and analyzed to show the subtlety of quantum theory, including the "wave-particle duality" and the non-separability of two-particle entangled state. Here it is shown that the…
In quantum mechanics, a long-standing question remains: How does a single photon traverse double slits? One intuitive picture suggests that the photon passes through only one slit, while its wavefunction splits into an ``empty" wave and a…
Consideration of the von Neumann measurement process underlying interference experiments shows that the uncertainty in the incoming wave, responsible for its interference, translates during measurement into an uncertainty at the measuring…
We study wave-particle duality by exploring for the first time effects of a quantum object's source. A single photon emitted from a pair of nonlocally entangled two-level atoms is specifically analyzed. Surprisingly, duality is found to be…
In quantum theory particles are represented as wave packets. Shock wave analysis of quantum equations of motion shows that wave function representation in general and wave packet description in particular contains discontinuities due to a…