Generation of N00N-like interferences with two thermal light sources

Measuring the Mth-order intensity correlation function of light emitted by two statistically independent thermal light sources may display N00N-like interferences of arbitrary order N = Ma center dot 2. We show that via a particular choice of detector positions one can isolate M-photon quantum paths where either all M photons are emitted from the same source or Ma center dot 2 photons are collectively emitted by both sources. The latter superposition displays N00N-like oscillations with N = Ma center dot 2 which may serve, e.g., in astronomy, for imaging two distant thermal sources with Ma center dot 2-fold increased resolution. We also discuss slightly modified detection schemes improving the visibility of the N00N-like interference pattern and present measurements verifying the theoretical predictions.