View of bunching and antibunching from the standpoint of classical signals

Abstract

The similarity between classical wave mechanics and quantum mechanics was noted in the works of De Broglie, Schrodinger, “late” Einstein, Lamb, Lande, Mandel, Marshall, Santos, Boyer, and many others. We present a new wave model of quantum mechanics, the so-called prequantum classical statistical field theory, in which an analogy between some quantum phenomena and the classical theory of random fields is investigated. Quantum systems are interpreted as symbolic representations of such fields (not only for photons, cf. Lande and Lamb, but even for massive particles). All quantum averages and correlations (including composite systems in entangled states) can be represented as averages and correlations for classical random fields. We use the prequantum classical statistical field theory to obtain bunching and antibunching in the framework of classical signal theory. We note that antibunching at least is typically considered an essentially quantum (nonclassical) phenomenon.