hobz Posted January 18, 2010 Share Posted January 18, 2010 Suppose I have an antenna transmitting a signal. Around the antenna I have several receiving antennas. Now I vary the energy of the transmitting antenna so that it corresponds to only one photon. If a receiving antenna absorbs the photon, what happens to the electromagnetic wave propagating throughout space in the, say, the oppsite direction? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted January 18, 2010 Share Posted January 18, 2010 Suppose I have an antenna transmitting a signal. Around the antenna I have several receiving antennas. Now I vary the energy of the transmitting antenna so that it corresponds to only one photon. If a receiving antenna absorbs the photon, what happens to the electromagnetic wave propagating throughout space in the, say, the oppsite direction? Your two scenarios are incompatible with each other. QM vs classical In the QM view, there is a probability of going in any direction, but the wave function collapses when the photon interacts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hobz Posted January 18, 2010 Author Share Posted January 18, 2010 So the EM wave does not exist in the QM scenario? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted January 18, 2010 Share Posted January 18, 2010 Not as a classical EM wave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hobz Posted January 18, 2010 Author Share Posted January 18, 2010 But as [math]\Psi[/math]? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted January 18, 2010 Share Posted January 18, 2010 Yes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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