by Basudeba Mishra
There are no paradoxes – but only ignorance.
Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1902.05080: Experimental Rejection of Observer-Independence in the Quantum World.
Like most of the terms, there is no precise definition of reality in quantum physics. “Quantum Reality” examines what “reality” means to a physicist including case histories of a reality that failed (the luminiferous ether) and a reality that succeeded (the atomicity of matter). But WHAT is this “Reality”? Wikipedia says: “Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, reality is the totality of a system, known and unknown”. But this is circular mumbo-jumbo and does not define reality.
Reality (वास्तवम्) is the description of things as they are (यथार्थभूतम्). It has three components: it must exist (be perceptible to senses and subject to measurement – अस्तित्व), it must be knowable (ज्ञेयत्व) and it must be describable in any language (अभिधेयत्व). Subjective reality is that which one believes – whether rightly or wrongly. Objective reality is that which can be verified by others also.
Superposition does not mean existing in both polarization states at the same time – it is physically impossible. Superposition is not an exclusively quantum phenomenon. Look at two sea waves coming from opposite directions and merging at one point. Then they merge with the surrounding water. There is no way to know which water molecule went where – no measurement is possible because we do not know where it went. It could be anywhere. This may create a different impression than the reality. That ignorance is called superposition (Adhyasa – अध्यास).
The same is true for a photon also. Just like we notice a wave from its tip, the so-called photon is the tip of the moving electromagnetic radiation. It is not a “particle” in the normal sense, which has position and a confined structure. Two photons are indistinguishable from each other. The electric vectors of sun-light point in random directions around the ray direction. Light becomes polarized, or partially polarized, when the electric fields or vectors have non-random orientations. Since photon has no rest mass and no charge, how do we determine whether it is a photon or anti-photon? What is said about bringing photon to a halt, is really bringing two equal and opposite wave-fronts to one position.
An individual photon can be described as having right or left circular polarization. But how do we know whether it is a superposition of the two? We detect the orientation of polarized light using ‘Haidinger’s brushes’. Photon is NOT light. Light is said to be a propagating disturbance of the electromagnetic field. But only reflected electromagnetic radiation (इरावती धेनुमती हि भूतम्) that makes objects perceptible, is light (आलोकः – लोकृँ॒ दर्श॑ने). Sunlight is always un-polarized, but the moonlight is slightly partially linearly polarized, though the full moon is un-polarized. We cannot “see” the sunlight or moonlight by itself – they are imperceptible – hence dark (कृष्णमृग – मृगँ॒ अ॒न्वेष॑णे). What we “see” is the object that reflects sun-moon-star “light”. When we “see” laser beams, what we see is actually the photons that scatter into our eye from the ever-present dust particles in the room. A light beam entering a vacuum chamber through a window, seems to disappear after the window because there are no particles inside the vacuum chamber to scatter the light.
Based on this property, light has been divided into five categories. The first is the self-luminous bodies (स्वज्योति) like the Sun. Here the incoming solar radiation (सावित्री) is reflected by Earth’s magnetosphere (गायत्री). We see the Sun in that reflected light. The second category is the moonlight (परज्योति). Here the body is not self-luminous, but we see objects when its reflected light is further reflected by objects. The third category is the least albedo material bodies (रूपज्योति). Here, the bodies neither emit nor reflect radiation. They absorb part of the radiation and emit the rest (अनवर्णे इमे भूमि). The fourth is the interstellar or intergalactic space, which does not reflect the radiation (अज्योति) – hence appear dark. And finally, knowledge (ज्ञानज्योति), where the external impulse is reflected in memory to make us cognize the object.
Last year Caslav Brukner, at the University of Vienna in Austria, came up with a way to re-create the Wigner’s Friend experiment in the lab by means of techniques involving six entangled photons to create two alternate realities – one representing Wigner and one representing Wigner’s friend to test objective reality. Wigner’s friend measures the polarization of a photon and stores the result. Wigner then performs an interference measurement to determine if the measurement and the photon are in a superposition.
But is it really possible? You can see the wave-front and measure its position and direction (orientation). But once it merges with other waves and collapses, can we identify the individual water molecules that made the wave? Similarly, we can “identify” and measure the photon, as long as it is the tip of the wave-front. But once it merges with other photons, can we isolate and identify it?
That observers reconcile their measurements of many kinds of fundamental reality is well known – some may be similar measurements and others may be measurement of related aspects. Universal facts exist and different observers are free to make whatever observations (measurements) they want. The choices one observer makes (measurement of position) do not necessarily influence the choices (measurement of momentum of the same body) other observers make – the principle ambiguously called locality. There are many objective reality that everyone agrees on. All scientists agree on the quarks and leptons or the fundamental forces of nature. Thus, Proietti and co’s result does not suggest that objective reality does not exist. As usual, fiction overtakes facts for modern scientists.
