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Abstract The classical properties of thermal light fields were instrumental in shaping our early understanding of light. Before the invention of the laser, thermal light was used to investigate the wave-particle duality of light. The subsequent formulation of the quantum theory of electromagnetic radiation later confirmed the classical nature of thermal light fields. Here, we fragment a pseudothermal field into its multiparticle constituents to demonstrate that it can host multiphoton dynamics mediated by either classical or quantum properties of coherence. This is shown in a forty-particle system through a process of scattering mediated by twisted paths endowed with orbital angular momentum. This platform enables accurate projections of the scattered pseudothermal system into isolated multiphoton subsystems governed by quantum dynamics. Interestingly, the isolated multiphoton subsystems exhibiting quantum coherence produce interference patterns previously attributed to entangled optical systems. As such, our work unveils novel mechanisms to isolate quantum systems from classical fields. This possibility opens new paradigms in quantum physics with enormous implications for the development of robust quantum technologies. 

The lymphatic system is a networked structure used by billions of immune cells, including T cells and Dendritic cells, to locate and identify invading pathogens. Dendritic cells carry pieces of pathogens to the nearest lymph node, and T cells travel through the lymphatic vessels and search within lymph nodes to find them. Here we investigate how the topology of the lymphatic network affects the time for this search to be completed. Building on prior work that maps out the human lymphatic network, we develop and extend a method to infer the lymphatic network topology of mice. We compare search times for the modeled and observed topologies and show that they are similar to each other and consistent with observed immune response times. This is relevant for translating immune response times in mice, where most experimental work occurs, into expected immune response times in humans. Our analysis predicts that for large systemic infections, the topology of the lymphatic network allows immune response times to remain fast even as animal mass increases by orders of magnitude. This work advances our understanding of how the structure of the lymphatic network supports the swarm intelligence of the immune system. It also elucidates general principles relating swarm size and organization to search speed.