Simulating quantum statistics with entangled photons: a continuous transition from bosons to fermions

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to simulate and observe quantum interference of bosons, fermions, and anyons using entangled photons, enabling exploration of complex quantum systems and particle statistics.

Contribution

It introduces a versatile approach to simulate various quantum particle statistics with entangled photons, including fractional anyons, independent of particle type.

Findings

Achieved 93.6% similarity between model and experiment.

Method generalizes to multiple particles and is particle-statistics independent.

Enables simulation of complex quantum behaviors with entangled photons.

Abstract

In contrast to classical physics, quantum mechanics divides particles into two classes-bosons and fermions-whose exchange statistics dictate the dynamics of systems at a fundamental level. In two dimensions quasi-particles known as 'anyons' exhibit fractional exchange statistics intermediate between these two classes. The ability to simulate and observe behaviour associated to fundamentally different quantum particles is important for simulating complex quantum systems. Here we use the symmetry and quantum correlations of entangled photons subjected to multiple copies of a quantum process to directly simulate quantum interference of fermions, bosons and a continuum of fractional behaviour exhibited by anyons. We observe an average similarity of 93.6\pm0.2% between an ideal model and experimental observation. The approach generalises to an arbitrary number of particles and is independent of the statistics of the particles used, indicating application with other quantum systems and large scale application.