Abstract
The well-known photon correlations of thermal light are now understood to result from the random superposition of independently emitted photons from spontaneous emission. Through random interference the number of photons evolves as a Bose-Einstein distribution rather than the Poisson distribution as one might expect for independent emissions of classical particles. By identifying terms in the density-matrix (\ensuremath{\rho}) equation for a linear amplifier, those terms giving rise to spontaneous emission were earlier distinguished from those causing amplification and absorption. We investigate the role of interference in the evolution of the photon statistics by further identifying terms in the equation for \ensuremath{\rho}${\ifmmode \dot{}\else \.{}\fi{}}_{n}$ solely responsible for quantum interference phenomena. The effects of this random interference on the photon factorial moments are quantified, even for those cases where the final field statistics are not Bose-Einstein. From our analysis we conclude that stimulated emission should be viewed as analogous to time-reversed absorption, rather than either a cascade process or pure constructive interference.
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