Where Photons Have Been: Nowhere Without All Components of Their Wavefunctions

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the Danan et al (2013) nested interferometer experiment, analyzing how different quantum interpretations explain the photon’s behavior, and finds the Transactional Interpretation better accounts for the observed data.

Contribution

It compares time-symmetric quantum interpretations, demonstrating that the Transactional Interpretation explains the experimental results more comprehensively than the Two-State Vector Formalism.

Findings

TSVF fails to predict the data from the experiment

Transactional Interpretation successfully explains all observed phenomena

Highlights importance of all wavefunction components in photon behavior

Abstract

A nested interferometer experiment by Danan et al (2013) is discussed and some claims evaluated concerning the whereabouts of the photon, primarily in the context of time-symmetric interpretations of quantum theory including the Two-State Vector Formalism (TSVF) and the Transactional Interpretation (TI). It is pointed out that the TSVF account fails to predict the observed data based only on the first-order wavefunction component. It is shown that the Transactional Interpretation readily accounts for all the observed phenomena.