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Quantum Theory and the Observer
In the experiments of Chaio et al. presented below, the basic set-up utilized a down converter, an instrument that splits a photon into twins having equal energy. These then went to a beam splitter that presented two alternative pathways to a detection system measuring the simultaneous arrival of the twin pair--an event that signalled wave-like behavior.
The addition of a polarizer to only one of the alternative pathways labelled that pathway and immediately destroyed all wave-like properties of the photons. The question then asked was: "what would happen if the information about the marked pathway was left intact while the photons went through polarizer P1, but was destroyed by the P2 polarizers just before arriving at the detection system?" The answer was unequivocal--wave behavior was restored.
A more elaborate version of this type of experiment was carried out at the University of Rochester which demonstrated that even when there was no observable difference in the photons arriving at the detection system, if it was even theoretically possible that their pathway could be retraced then that was sufficient to collapse the wave function and bring about particle-like behavior.
Faster than light
The Aspect experiments which confirmed the theoretical results predicted by Bell demonstrated that any signals passing between the twin pair of correlated photons emitted by radio-active calcium must exceed the speed of light.
High tech optical experiments have confirmed this conclusion. To do so, twin photon pairs were raced against one another. After adjusting their tracks to be identical, a barrier was placed across one path to take advantage of the tunneling effect--an effect long used in electronics with the tunneling diode in which the probability relations for energy distribution permit the occasional electron to surmount "impossible" energy barriers.
Interestingly the photon tunnelling through a barrier arrived at its target before its unimpeded twin, the average velocity over many trials being 1.7 times the velocity of light. It was also found that, in the process of tunneling, a photon is somehow able to sense the far side of the barrier and cross it in the same amount of time no matter how thick the barrier may be. Strange, is it not? Is a photon in some way conscious?
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