Correlation in single-photon experiments

TL;DR

This paper analyzes correlations in single-photon experiments using classical probability, demonstrating how detection patterns like bunching or anti-bunching depend on the statistical grouping of measurement sequences.

Contribution

It shows that classical probability theory can explain photon detection correlations, emphasizing the role of measurement grouping in observed phenomena.

Findings

Detection events are strictly anticorrelated due to energy conservation.

Bunching and anti-bunching depend on the statistical grouping of measurements.

Classical probability can account for correlations traditionally attributed to quantum effects.

Abstract

Correlations of detection events in photodetectors placed at the opposite sides of a beam splitter are studied in the frame of classical probability theory. It is assumed that there is always one photon present during one elementary measurement (one measurement act). Due to the conservation of energy, thereis a strict anticorrelation in detections in one elementary experiment, because the photon cannot excite both of the detectors at the same time. It is explicitely shown in several examples that the bunching or anti-bunching of the counts in serieses of elementary single-photon experiments are governed by the statistical properties of grouping the sequences of the elementary measurements.