Related papers: Biophotons: A Hard Problem
Photon emission is the hallmark of light-matter interaction and the foundation of photonic quantum science, enabling advanced sources for quantum communication and computing. Although single-emitter radiation can be tailored by the photonic…
Spontaneous emission of a photon by an atom is described theoretically in three dimensions with the initial wave function of a finite-mass atom taken in the form of a finite-size wave packet. Recoil and wave-packet spreading are taken into…
The oldest enigma in fundamental particle physics is: Where do the observed masses of elementary particles come from? Inspired by observation of the empirical particle mass spectrum we propose that the masses of elementary particles arise…
For several decades, astronomers have measured the electromagnetic emission in the universe from the lowest to the highest energies with incredible precision. The lowest end of the spectrum, corresponding to radio waves, is fairly well…
A source of deterministic single photons is proposed and demonstrated by the application of a measurement-based feedback protocol to a heralded single photon source consisting of an ensemble of cold rubidium atoms. Our source is stationary…
Earth's deciduous plants have a sharp order-of-magnitude increase in leaf reflectance between approximately 700 and 750 nm wavelength. This strong reflectance of Earth's vegetation suggests that surface biosignatures with sharp spectral…
A theory is presented for the photodetection statistics of radiation produced by current fluctuations in a phase-coherent conductor. Deviations are found from the Poisson statistics that would result from a classical current. For detection…
One of the most interesting unsolved questions in science today is the question of life on other planets. At the present time it is safe to say that we do not have much of an idea as to whether life is common or exceedingly rare in the…
Due to their quantum nature, single-photon emitters generate individual photons in bursts or streams. They are paramount in emerging quantum technologies such as quantum key distribution, quantum repeaters, and measurement-based quantum…
The origin of the observed Band-like photon spectrum in short gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs) is a long-standing mystery. We carry out the first general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulation of a sGRB jet with initial magnetization $\sigma_0…
The photoelectric effect, explained by Einstein in 1905, is often regarded as a one-electron phenomenon. However, in multi-electron systems, the interaction of the escaping electron with other electrons, referred to as electron correlation,…
Gamma-ray binaries (GBs) have been object of intense studies in the last decade. From an observational perspective, GBs are phenomenologically similar to most X-ray binary systems in terms of their broad-band emission across the entire…
Recently, a scheme based on the method of weak measurements to register the trajectories of photons passing through a nested Mach-Zehnder interferometer was proposed [L. Vaidman, Phys. Rev. A \textbf{87}, 052104 (2013)] and then realized…
Shot noise sets a fundamental limit on the sensitivity of classical optical measurements, with coherent emitters achieving the lowest possible shot-noise level. Emission from sub-Poissonian light provides a pathway to surpass this limit,…
By using the zero-phonon line emission of an individual organic molecule, we realized a source of indistinguishable single photons in the near infrared. A Hong-Ou-Mandel interference experiment is performed and a two-photon coalescence…
The ability to harness light-matter interactions at the few-photon level plays a pivotal role in quantum technologies. Single photons - the most elementary states of light - can be generated on-demand in atomic and solid state emitters.…
Deterministic generation of single photons is essential for many quantum information technologies. A bulk optical nonlinearity emitting a photon pair, where the measurement of one of the photons heralds the presence of the other, is…
The physical origin of gamma-ray burst (GRB) prompt emission (photosphere or synchrotron) is still subject to debate after five decades. Here, firstly we find that many observed characteristics of 15 long GRBs, which have the highest prompt…
This is a brief history of photons, both soft and hard, real and virtual. About 150-100 years ago, Maxwell and Einstein discovered intriguing properties of electromagnetic fields and how to understand them both macroscopically and…
The delayed luminescence of biological tissues is an ultraweak reemission of absorbed photons after exposure to external monochromatic or white light illumination. Recently, Wang, B\'okkon, Dai and Antal (Brain Res. 2011) presented the…