Experimental verification of statistical correlation for bosons: Another kind of Hong-Ou-Mandel interference

Wei-Tao Liu, Wei Wu, Ping-Xing Chen, Cheng-Zu Li, Jian-Min Yuan

Published 2009-12-07Version 1

According to the identity principle in quantum theory, states of a system consisted of identical particles should maintain unchanged under interchanging between two of the particles. The whole wavefunction should be symmetrized or antisymmetrized. This leads to statistical correlations between particles, which exhibit observable effects. We design an experiment to directly observe such effects for bosons. The experiment is performed with two photons. The effect of statistical correlations is clearly observed when the wavepackets of two photons are completely overlapped, and this effect varies with the degree of overlapping. The results of our experiment substantiate the statistical correlation in a simple way. Experiment reported here can also be regarded as another kind of two-photon Hong-Ou-Mandel interference, occurs in the polarization degree of freedom of photon.