Researchers Baffled to Detect a Single Photon in More Than One Spot Simultaneously, Fueling the Multiverse Theory
Physicists and Marvel aficionados worldwide are intrigued by multiverse theory. A new study provides a major challenge to this theory, stated Earth. The examination is based on a photon. Findings regarding this photon have been published in the journal Quantum Physics.
The study claims that a single photon could be present in two locations simultaneously. Some experts believe that if this assertion is true, then that means the multiverse does not exist. The team conducted advanced measurements to showcase that light can appear in two separate paths.
In the study, researchers upgraded the classic quantum mechanics experiment, the double-slit experiment, according to IFL Science. This experiment has light pass through two slits and then interact with a screen behind the slits. The interaction results in the formation of an interference pattern. If a photon detector is placed in one slit, it has been observed that the interference pattern disappears. In this situation, only two distinct lines appear, which is a reflection of particle-like behavior.
Researchers believe this change is because each photon is controlled by a wave function. Wave function is the probability of a photon to pass through any of the slits. In the absence of the detector, this function allows the photon to 'interfere' with itself, but with the detector it 'collapses' and starts to behave as if it has passed through only one slit. Essentially with the detector, the photon passes through both the slits, while in the latter it just passes through one.
The supporters of the multiverse theory claims that the photon passes through each slit in parallel universes. This implies that in one universe photon goes through the left slit while in the other it goes through the right one. To test whether the theory is correct, the team used an interferometer to divide a photon wave function. This division would send one function into one slit, and the second function into another, inside the double slit apparatus. The experiment was designed in such a way that both functions would meet again.
In both paths, glass plates were affixed to change light polarization by twisting the photons. If, as the multiverse theory suggests, the photon travels only on one path, then these changes that have been facilitated in the photons would cancel each other out after recombination. As observed in the original double slit experiment if the photon like the light travels through two slits, then interference will happen, but if it travels only in one path then it will 'collapse' and only distinct lines will appear. The findings suggested that the photons did travel through two paths under certain conditions, as an interference pattern was formed. This phenomenon is known as delocalization and proves one of the implications of the multiverse theory to be incorrect.
Researchers don't think the single photon experiment is enough to disprove the multiverse theory, stated Earth. The team knows that there is a possibility that in one universe the photon is spread into two slits, while in the other it just travels through one slit. “I think you can’t make claims about a single photon with this,” said Andrew Jordan of Chapman University who was not part of the study. The study is yet to undergo peer review.