Quantum empty waves revisited. – (Thomas Durt / LCAR / Seminar). – 26/03/2026, 11H

Séminaire LCAR

Thomas Durt, Ecole Centrale Mediterranee, Institut Fresnel, Marseille

Summary
The idea of empty waves can be traced back to Einstein who faced the following problem when he developed his theory of the photon: if the localized particle (the photon) carries all the energy and momentum, how can the wave (here the Maxwell wave) be considered real? A possible way to answer this question is to consider the wave as an empty wave (what Einstein called Gespenterfelder -ghost field-), which corresponds to the so-called pilot-wave introduced by L. de Broglie in a quantum framework in 1926, one century ago.

In our talk we will discuss these questions and present an experimental proposal aimed at putting into evidence the objective existence and the reality of such empty waves.