Thermalization of quantum light induced by classical nonlinear wave dynamics.

Nonlinear multimode optical systems induce thermalization of quantum light, with single- and two-photon states showing Rayleigh-Jeans and Boltzmann statistical distributions.

• Why it matters: Isolated quantum systems can thermalize in ways that are not yet fully understood, and linking this behavior to controllable classical nonlinear platforms is a key challenge.
• What they did: Numerical experiments modeled single- and two-photon quantum states propagating alongside classical light in multimode nonlinear optical systems to track emergent statistics.
• The result: The appearance of Rayleigh-Jeans and Boltzmann distributions indicates thermalization, enabling classical optical studies of quantum many-body dynamics and related phenomena such as quantum phase transitions.

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