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Physics

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    $\begingroup$ @FlatterMann If you crank down the intensity and have sufficiently sensitive electronics, you may detect single photons with a photodiode. That's physical reality. Charged particles leave tracks. That's physical reality. In physical reality, we often see things that behave like particles. We can capture this in models, but models are not physical reality. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 3, 2022 at 23:28
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    $\begingroup$ I, or better, some of the detectors that I have built have been detecting trillions of photons over the years. All we ever get from a photon is one irreversible energy transfer into a photomultiplier or avalanche diode. One can measure the momentum by using lenses, the energy with a grating and the spin with a polarizer. That's it. High energy particles leave tracks because the matter in the detector acts as a weak measurement system. See Mott's paper "The wave mechanics of alpha-ray tracks" (1929). Tracks are an emergent phenomenon. Single quanta don't have them. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 4, 2022 at 3:10
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    $\begingroup$ Tracks is what we get when high energy quanta interact weakly with matter. That is not a single quantum phenomenon. It is tens, hundreds, thousands or even billions of individual scattering events, no different from a visible light wave being made up of 10^19 photons per Joule. I don't know what mathematical objects you see in Mott's paper. He talks about the reason why a plane wave becomes a track: because once it is localized somewhere a series of weak scattering event will keep it localized along the momentum vector starting with the first localization. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 5, 2022 at 4:24
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    $\begingroup$ In the physical world you get tracks only if you have weak interaction between a plane wave and matter. Without the matter you always have a plane wave. These are the facts. I am sorry if you find the facts confusing. That confusion goes away as soon as you start building high energy physics detectors like I did in my active life. Nobody has ever managed to see a track without a matter filled detector and that is exactly what quantum mechanics predicts. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 5, 2022 at 21:39
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    $\begingroup$ If you want to have an argument for arguments sake please have it with someone in the chat. The comment section is, for all I understand, not to be used that way. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 5, 2022 at 23:51