A bunching parameter interferometer: Generalization of HOM effect

Abstract

Are photons either bunched or unbunched, or are these particular cases of a wider phenomenon? Here we will show that bunched and unbunched photons are indeed two extreme cases of a process parameterized by a continuous parameter, called the bunching parameter, and (mainly) we will suggest a bunching interferometer that can be used for the construction and measurement of the full range of values of the above bunching parameter. Finally, as an application of the bunching parameter, we will show how the dip graph of the HOM effect is generalized