Comment on “photons can tell ‘contradictory’ answer about where they have been”

Reznik, Gregory ; Versmold, Carlotta; Dziewior, Jan; Huber, Florian; Weinfurter, Harald; Dressel, Justin und Vaidman, Lev (21. Februar 2024): Comment on “photons can tell ‘contradictory’ answer about where they have been”. In: European Physical Journal Plus, Bd. 139, 181

Abstract

Yuan and Feng (Eur. Phys. J. Plus 138:70, 2023) recently proposed a modification of the nested Mach–Zehnder interferometer experiment performed by Danan et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 111:240402, 2013) and argued that photons give “contradictory” answers about where they have been, when traces are locally imprinted on them in different ways. They concluded that their results are comprehensible from what they call the “three-path interference viewpoint,” but difficult to explain from the “discontinuous trajectory” viewpoint advocated by Danan et al. We argue that the weak trace approach (the basis of the “discontinuous trajectory” viewpoint) provides a consistent explanation of the Yuan–Feng experiment. The contradictory messages of the photons are just another example of photons lying about where they have been when the experimental method of Danan et al. is applied in an inappropriate setup.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Physik
• Themengebiete: 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik > 530 Physik
• ISSN: 2190-5444
• Sprache: Englisch