Negative photon numbers observed
post by Kevin · 2010-05-31T08:02:33.978Z · LW · GW · Legacy · 6 commentsA real life paradox observed by quantum physicists: when not being observed, there can be a negative number of photons present.
The Economist summarizes the research. The scientific paper is available freely. Wikipedia discusses the paradox at length.
6 comments
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comment by steven0461 · 2009-03-06T09:31:00.736Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
As far as I can tell:
- the paper doesn't prove anything we didn't already know, but rather confirms QM yet again
- the Economist article is as completely awful as the average piece of quantum journalism
- Wikipedia mentions Hardy but doesn't discuss his version of the paradox
- there isn't a negative number of photons present, but there would be if photons had individual trajectories, which this experiment therefore proves is not the case, but we already knew that
Gleefully downvoted.
comment by jimrandomh · 2009-03-06T23:56:18.449Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
This site is no place for mindless link propagation.
comment by Eliezer Yudkowsky (Eliezer_Yudkowsky) · 2009-03-06T07:08:43.725Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Edited for extreme title length. Also corrected the incorrect summary of the research (e.g. article was about photons, summary stated it was about protons).
Replies from: Kevin