Fermionic atom antibunching 2026-10-14
The 2007 paper Comparison of the Hanbury Brown-Twiss effect for bosons and fermions by T. Jeltes and others compares polarized helium-3 fermions with helium-4 bosons. The chemical atoms occupy a metastable atomic level. Switching off magnetic trapping of neutral atoms releases them onto a microchannel plate detector with a delay-line anode, 63 cm below. Position and arrival-time readouts give three-dimensional pair separations by time-of-flight atom detection. About 1000 clouds per isotope supply histograms; normalization removes the broad cloud shape.
The pair detection correlation dips below one for helium-3 and rises above one for helium-4. The same apparatus, matched temperatures near , nearly identical trapping potentials, negligible interactions, and magnetic field gradient checks of spin polarization support an exchange-statistics interpretation. Finite detector resolution suppresses contrast; trap switch-off and resolution uncertainties limit quantitative agreement. A diverging laser lens deepens the dip, but its aberrations preclude a precise lens-model test. This detects exchange correlations, rather than measuring occupation of one selected spin orbital.[ref]
Comparison of the Hanbury Brown-Twiss effect for bosons and fermions by T. Jeltes and others. pp. 3–7, Methods, Figs. 1–3; supplementary pp. 14–16
Pair detection correlation 2026-10-14
The pair detection correlation divides joint detection probability by the product of single detection probabilities. The baseline means independent detection; means suppressed pairs. Its value depends on the prepared quantum state and detector resolution, so exclusion alone does not require every experimental curve to reach zero.