# Graded-index optical fiber emulator of an interacting three-atom system: illumination control of particle statistics and classical non-separability

## TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how a graded-index optical fiber with metallic slabs can emulate a three-atom quantum system, allowing control over particle statistics and generating classical non-separability akin to quantum entanglement.

## Contribution

It introduces an optical fiber model that simulates interacting three-atom systems, enabling manipulation of particle statistics and non-separability through spatial modulation.

## Key findings

- Able to emulate bosonic, fermionic, and mixed particle statistics.
- Controlled the symmetry properties of the system via incident field modulation.
- Produced classical non-separability similar to quantum entanglement.

## Abstract

We show that a system of three trapped ultracold and strongly interacting atoms in one-dimension can be emulated using an optical fiber with a graded-index profile and thin metallic slabs. While the wave-nature of single quantum particles leads to direct and well known analogies with classical optics, for interacting many-particle systems with unrestricted statistics such analoga are not straightforward. Here we study the symmetries present in the fiber eigenstates by using discrete group theory and show that, by spatially modulating the incident field, one can select the atomic statistics, i.e., emulate a system of three bosons, fermions or two bosons or fermions plus an additional distinguishable particle. We also show that the optical system is able to produce classical non-separability resembling that found in the analogous atomic system.