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I am a little bit confused about photon particle/wave duality. Do we have to interact with photon to detect it? Or without interacting photon, only by its wave nature, can we detect the existence of a photon. Consider the following image:photon

Can detector2 at a sufficient distance, detect the moving photon in a way?

Salihm
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  • As far as I'm aware, you cannot detect the photon without interacting with it. The 'wave' is a probability wave not a wave in a physical sense. – Brad S Mar 07 '18 at 17:58
  • May the downvoters, please leave a feedback comment, so I can improve my question? – Salihm Mar 07 '18 at 21:03
  • @HsMjstyMstdn actually, no, I dont mean absorption, I really mean interception in any means, absorption, collision, scattering etc.. I am trying to understand if it is possible to detect the existence of photon without touching it, only by its wave properties. The question you posted is somewhat look alike, but I dont think a duplicate. – Salihm Mar 08 '18 at 05:47
  • I'm not sure there's any other way to interact with a photon other than absorbing it... unless you could show me otherwise ? – HsMjstyMstdn Mar 08 '18 at 05:49
  • It's actually the Noble Prize 2012 in physics awarded to Serge Haroche and David Wineland. – SmarthBansal Mar 08 '18 at 06:15
  • @HsMjstyMstdn compton scattering? – Salihm Mar 08 '18 at 06:56
  • @SmarthBansal yes I came across it, but actually I couldnt understand the technical details on how the photon in the box affected the passing by atom. – Salihm Mar 08 '18 at 06:58

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Here is a link on manipulating individual quanta :

Serge Haroche and his colleagues have developed an experiment to study the quantum mechanics of microwave light trapped between two mirrors (a cavity)1. They show that the quantum of light — the photon — can be controlled at an astonishing l evel of precision, and have used this to bring the abstract ideas of quantum entanglement to life in the laboratory.

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Haroche's group measures the intensity of trapped light using a non-destructive method that probes the light using atoms flying through the trap. Each atom acts as a clock whose ticking rate depends on its energy level. As an atom flies through the cavity, its energies are shifted by the trapped light, and the total number of ticks of the clock changes accordingly, without any light being absorbed.

When a kind of excited atom called a Rydberg atom is used, the technique is sensitive enough to detect a single photon, and repeated measurements allow the same photon to be observed as it lives and eventually dies in the cavity

So the photon is detected in a sense due to changes in the boundary conditions for the solution of the atom leaving the cavity. Its presence changes the quantum mechanical solutions for the exiting atoms, without affecting the photon's four vector.

Community
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anna v
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  • Thank you for your response. Why does photon affects the exiting atom, due to its wave nature or something else, knowing that, they dont collide? – Salihm Mar 09 '18 at 14:32
  • The cavity is not empty, it contains a photon . The photons existence in the cavity changes the energy levels of the highly excited Rydberg atom,. The authors claim it is by a superposition of wavefunctions thus no changes in energy for the photon, Similar to a monochromatic laser beam the photons are in superposition adding up to light, not interaction. That is why there is interference in two split laser beams but no interaction (exchange of energy) as the color does not change https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Ecq7hIzYU . – anna v Mar 09 '18 at 16:15
  • You said authors claim it by superposition of wavefunctions. They mean the superposition of wavefunctions of photon and rydberg atom, right? – Salihm Mar 12 '18 at 05:02
  • Yes, in the boundary conditions between the mirrors they are entangled, become one solution of the QM equation – anna v Mar 12 '18 at 05:06