Manipulation of photon statistics of highly degenerate incoherent radiation

Highly degenerate incoherent radiation has a Gaussian density matrix and a large occupation number of modes f. If it is passed through a weakly transmitting barrier, its counting statistics is close to Poissonian. We show that a second identical barrier, in series with the first, drastically modifies the statistics. The variance of the photocount is increased above the mean by a factor f times a numerical coefficient. The photocount distribution reaches a limiting form with a Gaussian body and highly asymmetric tails. These are general consequences of the combination of weak transmission and multiple scattering.