Coalescent Photons in Blackbody Radiation

TL;DR

This paper reveals that blackbody radiation contains coalescent photon clusters, extending the understanding of photon statistics beyond single photons, and explores their spectral properties and implications for Planck's law.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of photon clusters in blackbody radiation and derives their statistical properties and spectra, offering a new perspective on blackbody radiation.

Findings

Photon clusters exist in blackbody radiation.

Spectra of photon-cluster radiation depend on temperature and cluster size.

Photon clustering influences the derivation of Planck's law.

Abstract

Within the Bose-Einstein statistics it is shown that the blackbody radiation contains coalescent photons along with single photons. Coalescent photons were first observed in the famous Hong-Ou-Mandel experiment of 1987. For the sake of convenience, $N$ coalescent photons are referred to as the $N$-photon cluster. In this work, statistics of photon clusters and probability that a photon cluster contains $N$ photons are found versus radiation frequency and temperature. Spectra of photon-cluster radiation are calculated as functions of blackbody temperature for different cluster ranks. Derivation of the Planck's radiation law is discussed in view of the existence of photon clusters in blackbody radiation.