The Double-Slit & the Mach-Zehnder Interferometer: Re-visiting through Asymmetry

It is generally believed that the “mystery” behind understanding Quantum Mechanics (QM) and the global drives to construct quantum computers using “Entanglement”, can be understood from how the two-beam superposition effect (SE) emerges out of a 2-slit, and a Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI). This chapter rehabilitates the classical analyses of these two superposition effects, while exploiting functional asymmetries, either deliberately introduced or intrinsic in the two-beam apparatuses. We are using mathematical formalism already well-established in classical optics since 1800’s, but with the extra emphasis that any final data generation requires some real physical interaction between the detector and the two light signals simultaneously stimulating the detecting molecules. This critical step of physical interaction process is not explicitly underscored by either the classical or the quantum physics. However, the asymmetry, either in the propagation or in the interaction process, is utilized to bring out the contradictions with the QM interpretations. For the 2-slit system, we deliberately introduce asymmetry on one of the slits. For MZI, the asymmetry is already built into the classical reflection property of a typical beams splitter.