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Nonlocal Single-photon Steering and the Theory of Objectivity

Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: This article develops an expanded critical-propositional analysis of Maria Fuwa, Shuntaro Takeda, Marcin Zwierz, Howard M. Wiseman, and Akira Furusawa’s 2015 experiment, “Experimental Proof of Nonlocal Wavefunction Collapse for a Single Particle Using Homodyne Measurements,” published in Nature Communications, in systematic dialogue with the Theory of Objectivity (TO) developed by Vidamor Cabannas and Denivaldo Silva. Fuwa et al. experimentally investigated Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering in a single-photon spatial-mode entangled state. A heralded photon was incident on a beam splitter and thereby represented by a coherent quantum state distributed between spatial modes assigned to Alice and Bob. Through phase-sensitive homodyne measurements with six settings on Alice’s side and full homodyne tomography on Bob’s side, the experiment violated a nonlinear EPR-steering inequality by 0.042 ± 0.006, approximately seven standard deviations, with Alice’s homodyne efficiency reaching 0.96 ± 0.01. The experiment thereby demonstrated single-photon EPR steering without the efficiency loophole used as an explanatory alternative, although the authors did not claim closure of the separation loophole (Fuwa et al. 2015). The present analysis adopts the modal discipline developed in the recent literature of the Theory of Objectivity and distinguishes three epistemological levels: (1) empirical confirmation of a physical phenomenon; (2) structural compatibility between that phenomenon and categories derived from the TO; and (3) theory-specific, discriminating empirical confirmation. This distinction is indispensable because the Seven Absolute Truths of the TO—VA1 through VA7—are presented within the theory as modal or logically necessary foundations rather than as empirical generalizations. Experiments therefore do not create their modal necessity. Rather, experiments may corroborate, constrain, challenge, or refine operational bridges connecting the modal structure of the TO with contingent physical phenomena. The article argues that the strongest structural convergences between Fuwa et al. and the TO concern VA2, the unique field or aura; VA4, boundary or interface; VA5, simultaneous or triangular observation; VA6, composition from preceding elements; and VA7, the transcendent informational element. Particular attention is given to the TO thesis that the transcendent element consists of knowledge or information produced in atomic relations and is equivalent to atomic radiation. The Fuwa experiment provides significant indirect support for the physical relevance of the relation among radiation, correlation, and information, but it does not establish an ontological identity between information and radiation in the specific sense proposed by the TO. The experiment is further interpreted in relation to the Phenomenic Table of the TO, especially light and electromagnetism; to the Inducing Effects EIE and EIR, cautiously associated with differentiation/distribution and convergence/integration; to the TO cosmogenic theorem; and, with substantially weaker evidential force, to its cosmological Eras. The analysis emphasizes that EPR steering must not be conflated with controllable faster-than-light signalling. Bob’s unconditioned local state does not provide him with a means of determining Alice’s measurement choice without an additional comparison of information. Consequently, any TO interpretation of nonlocality must remain compatible with the operational no-signalling structure of quantum mechanics unless it produces a new discriminating experiment. The central conclusion is therefore neither that Fuwa et al. prove the Theory of Objectivity nor that their result is irrelevant to it. Instead, their experiment provides strong empirical evidence for a class of physical phenomena—nonclassical relationality, single-particle mode entanglement, EPR steering, boundary-mediated differentiation, conditioned quantum determination, and the operational centrality of information—that can be articulated with several core categories of the TO. The article proposes a research program for transforming such structural compatibility into discriminating scientific tests through quantitative TO-specific predictions concerning information-radiation equivalence, boundary conditions, and EIE-EIR dynamics. Keywords: Theory of Objectivity; EPR steering; quantum nonlocality; single-photon entanglement; wavefunction collapse; homodyne detection; information; radiation; modal ontology; boundary; EIE; EIR; quantum foundations.
DOI: 10.17605/osf.io/dfz8m
Language: English
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7208808111
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