Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:2610.30002

Two particle interference: The Hanbury Brown Twiss and Hong Ou Mandel experiments

Christoph I Westbrook

quant-phSubmitted Oct 21, 2026• Announced Oct 22, 2026• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

I discuss two important quantum optics experiments which depend on two particle interference. In the years since their first demonstration many interesting and instructive variants have appeared, including the use of atoms instead of photons as the interfering particles. This chapter gives a pedagogical overview of some of these results and argues that the two effects are closely related.

Comments
Chapter submitted to ''Comprehensive Quantum Physics'' to be published by Elsiever

Related papers

Two particle interference: The Hanbury Brown Twiss and Hong Ou Mandel experiments

Christoph Ira Westbrook

I discuss two important quantum optics experiments which depend on two particle interference. In the years since their first demonstration many interesting and instructive variants have appeared, including the use of atoms instead of photons as the interfering particles. This chapter gives a pedagogical overview of some of these results and argues that the two effects are closely related.

•Oct 21, 2026•0 citations

Hanburry Brown and Twiss, Hong Ou and Mandel effects and other landmarks in Quantum Optics: from photons to atoms

Alain Aspect

In this lecture, I first present my views on the second vs the first quantum revolution, then describe the Hanbury Brown and Twiss effect with photons, and indicate why it was so important in the development of modern quantum optics. The presentation of our experiments on the HBT effect with atoms will allow me to emphasize the analogies but also the increased richness of the effect when going from photons to atoms. I will similarly describe the HOM effect for photons and its significance, and then present the analogous experiment with atoms. In conclusion, I will put these two effects in the long list of landmarks in the development of quantum optics, and indicate what has been done and what remains to be done with atoms in lieu of photons.

arXiv:2005.08239•May 17, 2020•2 citations

Hanbury Brown and Twiss, Hong Ou and Mandel and other landmarks in quantum optics: from photons to atoms

Alain Aspect

The emergence of Quantum Optics, in the second half of the 20th century, was closely related to landmark experiments, which were permitted by the development of single photon detection and correlation measurements. Photon correlation techniques allowed experimentalists to demonstrate effects closely linked to two-photon amplitudes interference with entangled states, a phenomenon emblematic of the second quantum revolution. In the Atom Optics group at Institut d'Optique, we revisit these experiments with photons replaced by metastable Helium atoms, which can be detected individually. After the Hanbury Brown Twiss and the Hong Ou Mandel experiments, we aim at realizing a test of Bell's inequalities with atoms entangled in momentum, i.e., in external degrees of freedom sensitive to mass.

The Rochester Conferences on Coherence and Quantum Optics and the Quantum Information and Measurement meeting•Jan 1, 2019•4 citations

Second-order fermionic interference with independent photons

Jianbin Liu, Hui Chen, Yu Zhou +3 more

The experimental study of second-order interference with fermions is much more difficult than that with bosons. Inspired by the conclusion that the behavior of two identical classical particles has exactly half fermionic and half bosonic characteristics [Phys. Rev. A88, 012130 (2013)PLRAAN1050-294710.1103/PhysRevA.88.012130], we have studied the second-order interference of fermions via the second-order interference of photons in Hanbury Brown–Twiss and Hong–Ou–Mandel interferometers, respectively. The experimental results are consistent with the theoretical predictions, which may serve as guidance for future interference experiments with fermions. The employed method offers an interesting and convenient way to study the coherence of fermions.

arXiv:1609.08248•Journal of the Optical Society of America B•May 19, 2017•3 citations

Hanbury Brown and Twiss, Hong Ou and Mandel effects and other landmarks in quantum optics: from photons to atoms

Alain Aspect

The second quantum revolution is based on the concept of entanglement and the ability to observe and manipulate individual quantum objects. This notion was prompted by celebrated quantum optics landmark experiments. The author’s group has endeavored to revisit these experiments with atoms instead of photons, more precisely metastable helium atoms (He*), which can be detected one by one, as photons. The first landmark that announced the beginning of modern quantum optics was the Hanbury Brown and Twiss effect: it has been studied not only with 4He* atoms, which are bosons, but also with 3He* atoms, which are fermions. The group has then observed the atomic Hong Ou and Mandel effect, and, more recently, shown the possibility to use a slightly generalized scheme to test Bell’s inequalities with atoms entangled in momentum.

Oxford University Press eBooks•May 16, 2019•5 citations

Hanbury Brown–Twiss Effect with Wave Packets

Tabish Qureshi, Ushba Rizwan

The Hanbury Brown–Twiss (HBT) effect, at the quantum level, is essentially an interference of one particle with another, as opposed to interference of a particle with itself. Conventional treatments of identical particles encounter difficulties while dealing with entanglement. A recently introduced label-free approach to indistinguishable particles is described, and is used to analyze the HBT effect. Quantum wave-packets have been used to provide a better understanding of the quantum interpretation of the HBT effect. The effect is demonstrated for two independent particles governed by Bose–Einstein or Fermi–Dirac statistics. The HBT effect is also analyzed for pairs of entangled particles. Surprisingly, entanglement has almost no effect on the interference seen in the HBT effect. In the light of the results, an old quantum optics experiment is reanalyzed, and it is argued that the interference seen in that experiment is not a consequence of non-local correlations between the photons, as is commonly believed. Quanta 2017; 6: 61–69.

arXiv:1509.02221•Quanta•Nov 29, 2017•8 citations
I discuss two important quantum optics experiments which depend on two particle interference. In the years since their first demonstration many interesting and instructive variants have appeared, including the use of atoms instead of photons as the interfering particles. This chapter gives a pedagogical overview of some of these results and argues that the two effects are closely related.
In this lecture, I first present my views on the second vs the first quantum revolution, then describe the Hanbury Brown and Twiss effect with photons, and indicate why it was so important in the development of modern quantum optics. The presentation of our experiments on the HBT effect with atoms will allow me to emphasize the analogies but also the increased richness of the effect when going from photons to atoms. I will similarly describe the HOM effect for photons and its significance, and then present the analogous experiment with atoms. In conclusion, I will put these two effects in the long list of landmarks in the development of quantum optics, and indicate what has been done and what remains to be done with atoms in lieu of photons.
The emergence of Quantum Optics, in the second half of the 20th century, was closely related to landmark experiments, which were permitted by the development of single photon detection and correlation measurements. Photon correlation techniques allowed experimentalists to demonstrate effects closely linked to two-photon amplitudes interference with entangled states, a phenomenon emblematic of the second quantum revolution. In the Atom Optics group at Institut d'Optique, we revisit these experiments with photons replaced by metastable Helium atoms, which can be detected individually. After the Hanbury Brown Twiss and the Hong Ou Mandel experiments, we aim at realizing a test of Bell's inequalities with atoms entangled in momentum, i.e., in external degrees of freedom sensitive to mass.
The experimental study of second-order interference with fermions is much more difficult than that with bosons. Inspired by the conclusion that the behavior of two identical classical particles has exactly half fermionic and half bosonic characteristics [Phys. Rev. A88, 012130 (2013)PLRAAN1050-294710.1103/PhysRevA.88.012130], we have studied the second-order interference of fermions via the second-order interference of photons in Hanbury Brown–Twiss and Hong–Ou–Mandel interferometers, respectively. The experimental results are consistent with the theoretical predictions, which may serve as guidance for future interference experiments with fermions. The employed method offers an interesting and convenient way to study the coherence of fermions.
The second quantum revolution is based on the concept of entanglement and the ability to observe and manipulate individual quantum objects. This notion was prompted by celebrated quantum optics landmark experiments. The author’s group has endeavored to revisit these experiments with atoms instead of photons, more precisely metastable helium atoms (He*), which can be detected one by one, as photons. The first landmark that announced the beginning of modern quantum optics was the Hanbury Brown and Twiss effect: it has been studied not only with 4He* atoms, which are bosons, but also with 3He* atoms, which are fermions. The group has then observed the atomic Hong Ou and Mandel effect, and, more recently, shown the possibility to use a slightly generalized scheme to test Bell’s inequalities with atoms entangled in momentum.
The Hanbury Brown–Twiss (HBT) effect, at the quantum level, is essentially an interference of one particle with another, as opposed to interference of a particle with itself. Conventional treatments of identical particles encounter difficulties while dealing with entanglement. A recently introduced label-free approach to indistinguishable particles is described, and is used to analyze the HBT effect. Quantum wave-packets have been used to provide a better understanding of the quantum interpretation of the HBT effect. The effect is demonstrated for two independent particles governed by Bose–Einstein or Fermi–Dirac statistics. The HBT effect is also analyzed for pairs of entangled particles. Surprisingly, entanglement has almost no effect on the interference seen in the HBT effect. In the light of the results, an old quantum optics experiment is reanalyzed, and it is argued that the interference seen in that experiment is not a consequence of non-local correlations between the photons, as is commonly believed. Quanta 2017; 6: 61–69.