The generalized Bouman-van der Velden quantum coincidence detector

The (two-) quantum coincidence detector originally proposed by van der Velden (1944) is generalized to an arbitrary renewal process input and an arbitrary distribution of the duration of the integration periods. The Laplace transform of the distribution of the waiting time to a quantum coincidence is derived and several applications and further general results are presented. It is shown that the performance of the Bouman-van der Velden coincidence detector is relatively stable with respect to variability of the durations of the integration periods, a result, which lends further support to the validity of the quantum coincidence principle in visual psychophysics.