Simulation of the Two-Photon Young’s Experiment within the Framework of the Photon Quantum Mechanics and in the Quasi-Classical Approach in the Electric-Dipole Approximation

Abstract

The two-photon interference appearing in a mental experiment similar to the Young’s experiment as a result of simultaneious emission of two photons by (two) independent point sources under the assumption that their radiation is described in the electric-dipole approximation in the classical electrodynamics is simulated within the framework of the photon quantum mechanics by using a six-component photon wave function in the coordinate representation and, for comparison, in the proposed “quasi-classical” approach by using the one-component photon wave function. The relevance of introduction of the photon wave function is emphasized in comparison to the concept of the photon being a “train” of real electromagnetic waves. The task of setting up new experiments that could initiate the analysis of the physical nature of quantum phenomena that occur in the physical vacuum and are formally described by the wave function in the quantum mechanics or by transition amplitudes in the quantum electrodynamics is proposed.