THE PROBLEM OF LIGHT DETECTION IN THE PRESENCE OF ZEROPOINT FLUCTUATIONS: A PHYSICAL MODEL FOR THE VISION OF WEAK SIGNALS

We examine the possibility of obtaining a model of human vision within the context of a purely wave theory of light, including the zero-point field. We show that the model meets one of the main objections to this assumption, namely that photodetectors should be activated to saturation by the zeropoint field alone. A straightforward consequence of the model is the existence of a minimal signal intensity which may be discriminated by the human eye from the (huge) zeropoint intensity. The threshold predicted by the model roughly agrees with empirical results.