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Experimental Bounds on Classical Random Field Theories
Published
Author(s)
Joffrey K. Peters, Sergey V. Polyakov, Jingyun Fan, Alan L. Migdall
Abstract
Alternative theories to quantum mechanics motivate important fundamental tests of our understanding and description of the smallest physical systems. Here we place experimental limits on those classical field theories which result in power-dependent normalized correlation functions. In addition, we compare our results with standard quantum mechanical interpretations of our spontaneous parametric downconversion source over an order of magnitude in intensity. Our data match the quantum mechanical expectations, and do not show a staistically significant dependence on power, setting a limit on quantum mechanics alternatives which require power- dependent autocorrelation functions.
Peters, J.
, Polyakov, S.
, Fan, J.
and Migdall, A.
(2014),
Experimental Bounds on Classical Random Field Theories, Foundations of Physics, [online], https://doi.org/10.1007/s10701-014-9857-2
(Accessed October 8, 2025)