Abstract: Significance We uncover an unsuspected quantum interference mechanism, which originates from the indistinguishability of identical bosons in time. Specifically, we build on the Hong–Ou–Mandel effect, namely the “bunching” of identical bosons at the output of a half-transparent beam splitter resulting from the symmetry of the wave function. We establish that this effect turns, under partial time reversal, into an interference effect in a quantum amplifier that we ascribe to time-like indistinguishability (bosons from the past and future ...
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