Linked Questions
10 questions linked to/from Fundamental Limits for Photon Detection
23
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If a photon truly goes through both slits (at the same time), then why can't we detect it at both slits (at the same time)?
I am not asking about whether the photon goes through both slits, or why. I am not asking whether the photon is delocalized as it travels in space, or why.
I have read this question:
Do we really ...
- 27.3k
64
votes
7
answers
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What's the physical meaning of the statement that "photons don't have positions"?
It's been mentioned elsewhere on this site that one cannot define a position operator for the one-photon sector of the quantized electromagnetic field, if one requires the position operator have ...
- 98.6k
23
votes
2
answers
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EM wave function & photon wavefunction
According to this review
Photon wave function. Iwo Bialynicki-Birula. Progress in Optics 36 V (1996), pp. 245-294. arXiv:quant-ph/0508202,
a classical EM plane wavefunction is a wavefunction (in ...
- 3,865
7
votes
7
answers
610
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If turning a perfectly monochromatic laser on for a finite time gives a frequency spread, where did the other frequency photons come from?
I changed again the mind experiment to avoid any explanation involving doppler effect or nonlinear interaction
I expressed the same problem under a different angle but it will probably make the ...
- 1,323
7
votes
7
answers
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Effect of wavelength on photon detection
When some photon detector detects a photon, is it an instantaneous process (because a photon can be thought of as a point particle), or does the detection require a finite amount of time depending on ...
- 2,387
10
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2
answers
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Why doesn't there exist a wave function for a photon whereas it exists for an electron?
A photon is an excitation or a particle created in the electromagnetic field whereas an electron is an excitation or a particle created in the "electron" field, according to second-quantization.
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4
votes
2
answers
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photon wave function, double slit, single photon source
There's an old argument by Newton and Wigner, that the photon as a massless particle can't have a position operator and therefore no position space wave function.
How does this tie in with the double ...
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0
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1
answer
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Why do objects above absolute zero start emitting electromagnetic radiation in infrared light first rather than radio or microwave?
I have a very rudimentary understanding of electromagnetic radiation and how it corresponds to temperature.
It is my understanding that any object above absolute zero first starts emitting radiation ...
- 149
0
votes
3
answers
402
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Shot noise and single photon detection
I am looking into the noise considerations of a single photon detector, specifically an avalanche detector. I am wondering if it makes sense to think about shot noise when considering a single photon.
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- 3
1
vote
1
answer
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How does electric and magnetic field interchanges in light propagation? [closed]
We know that magnetism is just a illusion created because of special relativistic effects and there is only electric field which is really there in reality.
so how can we say that this imaginary ...
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