Multi-Path Interference Tests of Quantum Mechanics

量子力学是物理学中最成功的理论之一，它几乎控制着微观世界中的所有过程，甚至影响着中观尺度上的许多现象。它的预测与几乎整整一个世纪以来的所有实验观察结果非常吻合。此外，量子力学是许多现代技术如微电子学的基础。因此，了解这一理论的局限性是极其重要的。该理论的关键特征之一是干涉：如果一个粒子可以沿着多条路径到达一个目的地，那么需要考虑所有这些可能性，以确定它最终到达目的地的几率。然而，这种干扰只考虑路径对的所有可能组合，而不是同时考虑三个或更多。我们使用现代光波导技术的实验将非常精确地测试光粒子是否真的像量子力学预测的那样运动，或者是否有偏差。与此同时，我们将从理论上探索替代理论可能是什么样子，以及它们的预测如何得到检验。

Quantum mechanics is one of the most successful theories in physics, governing practically all processes in the microscopic world and even affecting many phenomena on a mesoscopic scale. Its predictions have been in excellent agreement with all experimental observations made throughout what has been almost an entire century. Furthermore, quantum mechanics is the ba-sis of many modern technologies like microelectronics. It is therefore of utmost importance to know the limits of the theory. One of the theorys key features is interference: if a particle can follow multiple paths towards a destination, all of these possibilities need to be taken into account to determine the chance of it ending up at the destination. However, this interference only considers all possible combinations of pairs of paths, but not three or more at a time. Our experiments using modern optical wave-guide technology will test very precisely whether particles of light actually behave as quantum mechanics predicts, or whether there are deviations. At the same time we will explore theoreti-cally how alternative theories could look like and how their predictions could be tested.