Cthugha said:
And I told you four times now that antibunching IS an accepted and unambiguous way to identify single photons. Where is your problem with that? Please provide some arguments why you think it is not enough.
Detection devices sample a volume of space-time much greater than the theoretical size of a photon. Because of this there may be errors in the physical interpretation of data from anti-bunching experiments. This has occurred in the past in other areas. For example, Loudon (2000) in the introduction of his book asserts that
“Taylor (1909) failed to find any changes from the classical fringes of a Young interferometer when the light source was so feeble that only one photon at a time was present in the apparatus”.
There are several errors and/or omissions with this statement:
1. Taylor calculated photon number by comparing it with average light intensity, however the fluctuation of photon density in the light beam is and always will be unknown because detectors are not perfect recording devices.
2. Photographic emulsions depend on the developability of silver bromide crystals to record the arrival of photons. This occurs in two stages lasting approximately 10-6 sec, and is characterized by the ejection of an electron and subsequent neutralization of a silver atom. ( C.E.K.Mees & T.H. James, The Theory of the Photographic Process, (MacMillan, NY), 1966.) The chemical properties of the crystals together with quantum efficiency of film have been used to calculate the estimated number of photons required to develop a silver halide crystal and found to be approximately 100 photons. (P. Kowaliski, Applied Photographic Theory (Wiley, NY), 1972.) Taylor did not know this so his experiment is flawed.
3. A more recent study has found no interference fringes even after 336 hours of exposure with a photodetector, a finding which directly contradicts the idea that a photon interferes only with itself. (E. Panarella (1986). "Quantum uncertainties", in W.M. Honig, D.W. Kraft, & E. Panarella (Eds.) Quantum Uncertainties: Recent and Future Experiments and Interpretations, (p. 105) New York: Plenum Press.)
If Loudon is unaware of these properties of film then how do I know that the photodetection process was properly analyzed? I have found no analysis of its physical properties in his book. The correct interpretation of anti-bunching and other quantum optical experiments is based on the physical nature of detections and is therefore suspect unless these questions can be resolved.