Wave Particle Duality

Electrons 

Electron, one of the three basic subatomic particles—along with protons and neutrons—that make up atoms, the basic building blocks of all matter. The negatively charged electrons circle an atom’s central nucleus, which is formed by positively charged protons and the electrically neutral particles called neutrons. Like opposite ends of a magnet that attract one another, the negative electrons are attracted to a positive force, which binds them to the nucleus. The nucleus is small and dense compared with the electrons, which are the lightest charged particles in nature. The electrons circle the nucleus in orbital paths called shells, each of which holds only a certain number of electrons. 

Photons 

Max Planck's quantum theory, introduced in 1900, revolutionized physics by proposing that energy is not emitted or absorbed continuously but in discrete packets called quanta or photons. 

Photon is a type of particle without a mass and moves with the speed of light in a vacuum. A photon is the “quantum of electromagnetic radiation”. In other words, it is the smallest and the fundamental particle of electromagnetic radiation.  

A photon has no mass, no electric charge, and is a stable particle.  These particles possess wave-particle duality. It has 2 polarization states. 

Wave particle Duality 

Wave-particle duality is the concept that all matter and energy can exhibit both wave-like and particle-like properties, depending on how they are observed. This means that while we may think of light as waves, it can also behave like particles (photons), and conversely, particles like electrons can exhibit wave-like behavior. 

I personally recognize the most advanced moment in the progress of chemistry as the probabilistic model developed by mathematician De Broglie for the hydrogen atom. According to Neil Bohr’s model, the single electron in the hydrogen atom should be stable and occupy a minimum energy level. But in Broglie’s model, he showed that there is a probability of encountering this electron in any energy level from the nucleus to infinity. If it is encountered in the first energy level, it is because that electron is being observed at that moment. A particle can exist in either a physical or non-physical state at any given time. It is surprising that this law, while valid for subatomic particles, is not valid for created matter. 

 

Wave Particle Duality and Consciousness 

Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff suggested that Consciousness arises from Quantum processes in microtubules within neurons. When the Wave function is collapsed, it exhibits the Particle like behavior. The collapsing of Wave function is interconnected with the Observer. This is entangled process with the Observer. This can be identified further like this, the Observation is influenced by the Observer. 

At one moment, the observation exists in all the possible states it can exist in. But at the moment when the observer sees it, it becomes just one particular state out of all those states. Now the other question in this paradox is how the observer decides which state to see. Can the observer choose it through freewill or is it determined by some indicator that is above the observer. So this entire universe is one. It changes and rearranges itself from person to person, allowing him to see what he is observing. If we think about it further, something that the only one thing exists in the entire universe is arranged differently and appears in different ways depending on the situation. This is a situation that is difficult to even physically create. It is also difficult to imagine the reason for such a process to exist in the universe... This raises many questions for us as humans to think about... but it is doubtful whether science will provide a definitive answer.