Abstract
Two-particle interference is a quintessential effect of quantum mechanics which is perhaps most beautifully demonstrated by the Hong–Ou–Mandel effect. In this phenomenon, the probability amplitudes of two indistinguishable photons entering opposing inputs of a beam-splitter interfere destructively, in a manner which is not describable by any classical theory. When realized with photons prepared in the two-mode squeezed vacuum state, this two-particle interference also serves as a demonstration of the strong non-classical correlations between the modes, in particular a violation of the Cauchy–Schwarz inequality. This elegant effect is thus intrinsically related to a violation of a Bell inequality, as both phenomena rely on underlying non-classical features of the quantum state. In this chapter we outline a proposal to demonstrate the Hong–Ou–Mandel effect with massive particles, utilizing pairs of atoms produced by spontaneous four-wave mixing via colliding condensates. However, unlike the two-mode quantum optics scheme, the multimode nature of the collision halo motivates us to formulate a new measurement protocol to quantify the effect in the atomic case.
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Lewis-Swan, R.J. (2016). Proposal for Demonstrating the Hong–Ou–Mandel Effect with Matter Waves. In: Ultracold Atoms for Foundational Tests of Quantum Mechanics. Springer Theses. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41048-7_2
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