Exploring Quantum Foundations with Single Photons

This thesis uses high-precision single-photon experiments to shed new light on the role of reality, causality, and uncertainty in quantum mechanics. It provides a comprehensive introduction to the current understanding of quantum foundations and details three influential experiments that significantly advance our understanding of three core aspects of this problem. The first experiment demonstrates that the quantum wavefunction is part of objective reality, if there is any such reality in our world. The second experiment shows that quantum correlations cannot be explained in terms of cause and effect, even when considering superluminal influences between measurement outcomes. The final experiment in this thesis demonstrates a novel uncertainty relation for joint quantum measurements, where the textbook relation does not apply. 

Author Biography

Martin Ringbauer completed his undergraduate studies in Physics and Mathematics at the University of Vienna, Austria. During his time in Vienna, he was also involved in research on quantum computing, leading to two publications. He received his PhD in quantum optics, with seven first-author publications, from the University of Queensland, Australia in 2016. 

Ringbauer is driven by curiosity about the deep questions of quantum theory and also takes great passion in science communication and outreach. He organized and performed numerous outreach events and presided over the UQ student chapter of the Optical Society of America for two years.