Quantum Statistics with Classical Particles

Daniel Gottesman

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Quantum Statistics with Classical Particles

Daniel Gottesman

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Abstract

Indistinguishability of particles is normally considered to be an inherently quantum property which cannot be possessed by a classical theory. However, Saunders has argued that this is incorrect, and that classically indistinguishable particles are possible. I make this suggestion concrete by describing a class of microscopic classical theories involving indistinguishable particles hopping stochastically on a graph, and show that it should be possible to experimentally create a physical system realizing a simple model by continuously observing atoms trapped in an optical lattice. The indistinguishable classical particles obey Bose-Einstein statistics, display the associated clustering phenomena, and in appropriate models, can even undergo Bose-Einstein condensation.

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Daniel Gottesman. 2005-12-29. Quantum Statistics with Classical Particles. https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0511207

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