The compatibility between quantum mechanics and local realist theories in atomic cascade experiments

Abstract

The authors show that the divergence between the predictions of quantum optics and the local realist theory known as stochastic optics, for the extended type of photon-coincidence experiment described recently by deCaro, is of the same order of magnitude as for Aspect-type experiments. This means that, in such new experiments, as in those so far performed, counting statistics will have to be greatly improved before a discrimination between the two theories becomes possible. The authors also show that the outstanding difference between the two theories is that, while stochastic optics uses a genuine, that is, positive, detection probability, the corresponding quantum formalism leads to a pseudoprobability. Nevertheless there is a striking parallel, in that both theories recognize the phenomenon known as enhancement, and both describe it as having its origin in a mixing of the signal field with the zero-point field by a polarizing device.