Related papers: What was in the apparatus before the click
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…
When a quantum object -- a particle as we call it in a non-rigorous way -- is described by a multi-branched wave- function, with the corresponding wave-packets occupying separated regions of the time-space, a frequently asked question is…
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…
Feynman contended that the double-slit experiment contained the `only mystery' in quantum mechanics. The mystery was that electrons traverse the interferometer as waves, but are detected as particles. This note was motivated by the question…
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…
Some recent works have introduced a quantum twist to the concept of complementarity, exemplified by a setup in which the which-way detector is in a superposition of being present and absent. It has been argued that such experiments allow…
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…
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…
A single-particle multi-branched wave-function is studied. Usual which-path tests show that if the detector placed on one branch clicks, the detectors on the other branches remain silent. By the collapse postulate, after this click, the…
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…
What is the quantum system? Consider the wavefunction of the electron, what we call single particle wave-function and assume that it contains N wave packets. If we pass all the wave packets through an electric field, all are deflected, as…
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…
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…
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…
The wave-particle duality dates back to Einstein's explanation of the photoelectric effect through quanta of light and de Broglie's hypothesis of matter waves. Quantum mechanics uses an abstract description for the behavior of physical…
The interaction of a single-photon wave packet with an initially excited two-level atom in free space is studied in semiclassical and quantum approaches. It is shown that the final state of the field does not contain doubly occupied modes.…
Recently, it has been argued [arXiv:1111.6597, arXiv:1005.5173] that different quantum states do necessarily correspond to different elements of reality, under the assumption that quantum mechanics is correct and that measurement settings…
This is a non-technical presentation (in historical context) of the quantum theory that is strictly based on global unitarity. While the first part was written for a general readership, Sect. 5 may appear a bit provocative. I argue that the…
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 a consistent description of the quantum measurement process, whether the wave or particle-like aspect of a system is revealed depends on the details of the measurement chain, and cannot be interpreted as an objective fact about the…