Thank you for that. This is one of most interesting experiments I’ve seen, because in my interpretation, it’s refuting a quantum ontological randomness more than confirming it.
Consider the case of 1 photon. It hits the splitter, the splitter establishes boundary conditions on the photon wave packet such that there is only possible mode compatible with the splitter at any given time, and only 2 modes generally.
Now, two photons. The article says they have to match in phase, time, and polarization. Since they match, they will be deflected in the same way all the time, because the beam splitter is only compatible with one mode at a particular instance of time (for a particular phase and polariztion?).
Yes, I know, Bell’s Theorem, no hidden variables, yadda yadda yadda. I’m not convinced. Neither was Jaynes, and I find him clearer and cleverer than those who think the quantum world is magical and mysterious, and the world runs on telekinesis. He wasn’t convinced by Bell, and in particular charged that Bell’s analysis didn’t include time varying hidden variables, which is of course the natural way to get the appearance of ontological randomness—have the hidden variable vary at smaller time scales than you are able to measure.
Although apparently not. Looks like the HOM effect has measured the time interval down to the relevant time scales. Hurrah! Ontological randomness is dead! Long live the Bayesian Conspiracy!
But I’d like to see the experiment done without the splitter. Do the photons ever go the same way without the splitter there to establish a boundary condition? If it’s all just about photon entanglement and ontological randomness, shouldn’t they? My prediction is that they wouldn’t.
And yes, I realize that it’s unlikely that I have resolved all the mysteries of quantum physics before breakfast. Still, that’s the way it looks to me.
Wondering if Jaynes had ever commented on the HOM effect, I found no direct comment, but instead a wikipedia article: “The Jaynes–Cummings model (JCM) is a theoretical model in quantum optics. It describes the system of a two-level atom interacting with a quantized mode of an optical cavity...” Is he getting at the same thing here—of boundary conditions applied to wave packets? I don’t know. Looks like in his last paper on quantum theory, Scattering of Light by Free Electrons, he’s getting at the wave function as being physically real, and not the probability distribution of teeny tiny billiard balls.
And while I was at it, I found that Hess and Philipp have been pushing against Bell for time variation. Something to check out sometime.
Thank you for that. This is one of most interesting experiments I’ve seen, because in my interpretation, it’s refuting a quantum ontological randomness more than confirming it.
Consider the case of 1 photon. It hits the splitter, the splitter establishes boundary conditions on the photon wave packet such that there is only possible mode compatible with the splitter at any given time, and only 2 modes generally.
Now, two photons. The article says they have to match in phase, time, and polarization. Since they match, they will be deflected in the same way all the time, because the beam splitter is only compatible with one mode at a particular instance of time (for a particular phase and polariztion?).
Yes, I know, Bell’s Theorem, no hidden variables, yadda yadda yadda. I’m not convinced. Neither was Jaynes, and I find him clearer and cleverer than those who think the quantum world is magical and mysterious, and the world runs on telekinesis. He wasn’t convinced by Bell, and in particular charged that Bell’s analysis didn’t include time varying hidden variables, which is of course the natural way to get the appearance of ontological randomness—have the hidden variable vary at smaller time scales than you are able to measure.
Although apparently not. Looks like the HOM effect has measured the time interval down to the relevant time scales. Hurrah! Ontological randomness is dead! Long live the Bayesian Conspiracy!
But I’d like to see the experiment done without the splitter. Do the photons ever go the same way without the splitter there to establish a boundary condition? If it’s all just about photon entanglement and ontological randomness, shouldn’t they? My prediction is that they wouldn’t.
And yes, I realize that it’s unlikely that I have resolved all the mysteries of quantum physics before breakfast. Still, that’s the way it looks to me.
Wondering if Jaynes had ever commented on the HOM effect, I found no direct comment, but instead a wikipedia article: “The Jaynes–Cummings model (JCM) is a theoretical model in quantum optics. It describes the system of a two-level atom interacting with a quantized mode of an optical cavity...” Is he getting at the same thing here—of boundary conditions applied to wave packets? I don’t know. Looks like in his last paper on quantum theory, Scattering of Light by Free Electrons, he’s getting at the wave function as being physically real, and not the probability distribution of teeny tiny billiard balls.
And while I was at it, I found that Hess and Philipp have been pushing against Bell for time variation. Something to check out sometime.