Validation of classical modeling of single-photon pulse propagation

Abstract

"It is well-known to those who know it" that single-photon interference experiments can be modeled classically [S. Barnett, arXiv:2207.14632 (2022)]. When a single-photon light pulse was split by a biprism good agreement with a classical fit was obtained and the photon was counted only once, consistent with a probabilistic interpr.etation [V. Jacques et al, Eur. Phys. J. D 35, 561 (2002)]. A justification for this "well know result of Quantum Optics" is implicit in [M. Hawton, Phys. Rev A 104, 052211 (2021)] where a real covariant field describing a single photon is first quantized. Here the theoretical basis of this result is reviewed and the theory is extended to multiphoton states and QED Fock space. The crucial role of the CPT theorem in coupling to charged matter and resolution of the photon localization problem is discussed.