An Indo-French collaboration of researchers from the field of quantum optics has provided experimental evidence confirming the co-existence of wave-and-particle-like properties of a single photon.
According to the Raman Research Institute (RRI), in what could be a significant breakthrough in fundamental physics, the latest findings hold the potential to challenge Niels Bohr’s wave-particle complementarity principle which lies at the heart of the standard quantum interpretation.
Complementarity principle
Whereas the Bohr’s wave-particle complementarity principle prohibits the simultaneous display of wave-and-particle-like properties, the latest findings of the researchers here seem to require an appropriate reformulation of the complementarity principle, the institute said.
“In this experiment, we demonstrate the remarkable display of spatial separation between two distinct properties, that is, polarization and spatial degrees of freedom of a single photon within the interferometer, by preserving the wave-like coherence between the states of a single photon taking both arms of an interferometer. This result could have far reaching ramifications in technologies like quantum communications and quantum sensing,” said Professor Urbasi Sinha, head, the Quantum Information and Computing (QuIC) lab at RRI.
Counterintuitive quantum effect
Researchers from RRI, and their collaborators from the Bose Institute and CY Cergy Paris University in France argued that this experiment provides an unambiguous empirical vindication of the otherwise puzzling counterintuitive quantum effect, called the Quantum Cheshire Cat (QCC) effect, which was predicted in 2013 by Yakir Aharonov et al.
“Interestingly, the name of this effect was inspired by the imagery of ‘a grin without a cat’ used in the classic novel Alice in Wonderland,” RRI said.
