Extending the possibilities of the corpuscular theory of light by using the theory of stochastic processes

Abstract

The well known experiment with thee linear polarizers clearly demonstrates interesting properties of light. The beam intensity of photon beam transmitted through one, two or three polarizers can be measured in dependence on the rotations of the polarizers. The experiment has attracted attention of many researchers because the measured intensities cannot be explained by photons being only absorbed by the polarizers; the polarizers must also change a property (called polarization) of the transmitted photons. However, contemporary theories of light have not allowed to determine the probability (density) functions characterizing the two effects. It has strongly limited understanding of the physical phenomenon. In this paper example data of beam intensities corresponding to 3 ideal identical linear polarizers are analyzed with the help of probabilistic model based on state-transition-change (STC) stochastic process. Using the process, it has been possible to determine numerical values of the probability (density) functions for the first time. Measured beam intensities corresponding to sequences of different polarization sensitive devices and other optical elements may be analyzed in similar way, too. The results provide new perspective on description of polarization of light and particle-matter interaction in general.