The Wave–Particle Dualism of Photons as Seen from an Informational Point of View

TL;DR

This paper explores the idea that physical reality is fundamentally informational, using the double-slit experiment to show how nature responds to observations with patterns of binary information.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel informational interpretation of the wave-particle duality of photons through the lens of Wheeler's observational approach.

Findings

Nature answers experimental questions through spatiotemporal patterns of elementary observations.

The Landauer Principle is connected to the dissipation of energy in producing binary information.

Wheeler's concepts of observer participation and binary information gain are clarified through this framework.

Abstract

This paper deals with J. A. Wheeler’s proposal that each piece of reality owes its existence to observation—an approach to physics, which implies that all physical entities at their bottom are informational in character. Focusing on the double-slit experiment with photons, which is the key evidence for the wave–particle dualism of photons, this paper follows Wheeler’s observational approach and interprets this experiment as a question posed to nature. Considering how the enquiry regarding the wave–particle duality of photons is answered by nature, it is shown that experimental questions are being answered by nature in the form of spatiotemporal patterns of elementary observations (EOs) which are binary pieces of information, produced by the dissipation of energy. Working through this line of thought, Wheeler’s statements of “binary information gain”, “observer participance” and the “impossibility of continuum idealizations of physical laws” are elucidated and connections to the Landauer Principle are made.

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