Event-by-event simulation of quantum eraser experiments with single photons

TL;DR

This paper introduces a local causality-compliant simulation model that replicates quantum eraser experiment results with photons without wave equations, challenging the necessity of wave-particle duality explanations.

Contribution

The authors develop a particle-only simulation model that reproduces quantum eraser experiment outcomes, eliminating the need for wave-based descriptions.

Findings

Simulation reproduces quantum eraser averages

Visibility does not measure wave character

Wave-particle duality concept becomes superfluous

Abstract

We present a computer simulation model that is a one-to-one copy of a quantum eraser experiment with photons (P. D. D. Schwindt {\sl et al.}, Phys. Rev. A 60, 4285 (1999)). The model is solely based on experimental facts, satisfies Einstein's criterion of local causality and does not require knowledge of the solution of a wave equation. Nevertheless, the simulation model reproduces the averages as obtained from the wave mechanical description of the quantum eraser experiment, proving that it is possible to give a particle-only description of quantum eraser experiments with photons. We demonstrate that although the visibility can be used as a measure for the interference, it cannot be used to quantify the wave character of a photon. The classical particle-like simulation model renders the concept of wave-particle duality, used to explain the outcome of the quantum eraser experiment with photons, superfluous.