A Mean-Field Analogue of the Hong-Ou-Mandel Experiment With Bright Solitons

Abstract: In the present work, we theoretically propose and numerically illustrate a mean-field analogue of the Hong-Ou-Mandel experiment with bright solitons. More specifically, we scatter two solitons off of each other (in our setup, the bright solitons play the role of a classical analogue to the quantum photons of the original experiment), while the role of the beam splitter is played by a repulsive Gaussian barrier. In our classical scenario, distinguishability of the particles yields, as expected, a $0.5$ split mass on either side. Nevertheless, for very slight deviations from the completely symmetric scenario a near-perfect transmission i.e., a $|2,0>e$ or a $|0,2 >$ state can be constructed instead, very similarly to the quantum mechanical output. We demonstrate this as a generic feature under slight variations of the relative soliton speed, or of the relative amplitude in a wide parametric regime. We also explore how variations of the properties of the "beam splitter" (i.e., the Gaussian barrier) affect this phenomenology.