Local realist model for the coincidence rates in atomic-cascade experiments

Abstract

We assume that the two photons emerging from an atomic cascade process are classical wave-packets with well defined intensities and states of elliptical polarization. Such weak light signals, when interacting with optical devices such as linear polarizers and quarter-wave plates, are assumed to undergo stochastic changes of intensity in addition to the change in polarization experienced by macroscopic signals. We show how such assumptions can lead, in a natural way, to an enhancement in the detection probability of certain signals, and hence to a family of models which fit the observed counting rates in all atomic-cascade experiments so far performed, including those which investigate the circular polarizations of the photons.