Event-based simulation of neutron interferometry experiments

TL;DR

This paper applies a discrete-event simulation approach to neutron interferometry, successfully reproducing experimental results and demonstrating classical systems can mimic quantum correlations like interference and entanglement.

Contribution

It introduces a cause-and-effect simulation method for neutron interferometry that does not rely on wave equations, providing a new classical perspective on quantum phenomena.

Findings

Simulation reproduces experimental results including entanglement

Classical systems can exhibit quantum-like correlations

Method offers a cause-and-effect explanation for neutron experiments

Abstract

A discrete-event approach, which has already been shown to give a cause-and-effect explanation of many quantum optics experiments, is applied to single-neutron interferometry experiments. The simulation algorithm yields a logically consistent description in terms of individual neutrons and does not require the knowledge of the solution of a wave equation. It is shown that the simulation method reproduces the results of several single-neutron interferometry experiments, including experiments which, in quantum theoretical language, involve entanglement. Our results demonstrate that classical (non-Hamiltonian) systems can exhibit correlations which in quantum theory are associated with interference and entanglement, also when all particles emitted by the source are accounted for.