Sonoluminescence: Two-photon correlations as a test of thermality

Abstract

In this Letter we propose a fundamental test for probing the thermal nature of the spectrum emitted by sonoluminescence. We show that two-photon correlations can in principle discriminate between real thermal light and the quasi-thermal squeezed-state photons typical of models based on the dynamic Casimir effect. Two-photon correlations provide a powerful experimental test for various classes of sonoluminescence models.

6 pages, revtex 3; revised to include more discussion of finite volume effects; physics conclusions unchanged; to appear in Physics Letters A