Experimental assessment of physical realism in a quantum-controlled device

Bohr’s complementarity principle has been challenged by quantum delayed-choice experiments wherein quantum systems are claimed to behave neither as wave nor as a particle, but in an intermediary way. However, this conclusion has been supported by retro-inference and with no direct link with the system quantum state. Here, we consider a framework that employs an operational criterion of physical reality to diagnosis the system ontology directly from the quantum state at each instant of time. We show that, in disparity with previous proposals, our setup ensures a formal link between the output visibility and elements of reality within the interferometer. An experimental proof-of-principle is provided for a two-spin-1/2 system in an interferometric setup implemented in a nuclear magnetic resonance platform. We discuss how our results validate, to a great extent, Bohr’s original formulation of the complementarity principle and unveil morphing reality states. The concept of wave-particle duality is at the core of quantum mechanics principles but has seen an element of questioning with recent experiments were overlapping behaviours have been observed. The authors propose and experimentally implement a wave-particle duality experiment in a quantum-controlled interferometer concluding that wave and particle realities can never manifest themselves simultaneously.