Two-particle indistinguishability and identification of boson-and-fermion species: a Fisher information approach

Abstract

We present a study on two-particle indistinguishability and particle-species identification by introducing a Fisher-information (FI) approach---in which two particles pass through a two-wave mixing operation and the number of particles is counted in one of the output modes. In our study, we first show that FI can reproduce the Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) effect with two bosons or two fermions. In particular, it is found that even though bosons and fermions exhibit different physical behavior (i.e., "bunching" or "anti-bunching") due to their indistinguishability, the aspects of HOM-like dip are quantitatively same. We then provide a simple method for estimating the degree of two-particle indistinguishability in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer-type setup. The presented method also enables us to identify whether the particles are bosons or fermions. Our study will provide useful primitives for various study of boson and fermion characteristics.