Double-Fock Superposition Interferometry for Differential Diagnosis of Decoherence

Abstract

Interferometric signals are degraded by decoherence, which encompasses dephasing, mixing and any distinguishing which-path information. These three paradigmatic processes are fundamentally different, but, for coherent, single-photon and $N00N$-states, they degrade interferometric visibility in the very same way, which impedes the diagnosis of the cause for reduced visibility in a single experiment. We introduce a versatile formalism for many-boson interferometry based on double-sided Feynman diagrams, which we apply to a protocol for differential decoherence diagnosis: Twin-Fock states |N,N> with $N\ge 2$ reveal to which extent decoherence is due to path distinguishability or to mixing, while double-Fock superpositions $|N:M>=(|N,M>+|M,N>)/\sqrt{2}$ with $N>M>0$ additionally witness the degree of dephasing. Hence, double-Fock superposition interferometry permits the differential diagnosis of decoherence processes in a single experiment, indispensable for the assessment of interferometers.

arXiv comment10 pages, 7 figures, accepted version

References in corpus (29)

• Decoherence, einselection, and the quantum origins of the classical
• Quantum Interferometric Optical Lithography: Exploiting Entanglement to Beat The Diffraction Limit
• Decoherence, the measurement problem, and interpretations of quantum mechanics
• Beating the Standard Quantum Limit with Four Entangled Photons
• Complete Characterization of a Quantum Process: the Two-Bit Quantum Gate
• Mach-Zehnder Interferometry at the Heisenberg Limit with coherent and squeezed-vacuum light
• Colloquium: Quantum interference of clusters and molecules
• Time-reversal and super-resolving phase measurements
• Entanglement-enhanced measurement of a completely unknown phase
• Hong-Ou-Mandel atom interferometry in tunnel-coupled optical tweezers
• Three-photon bosonic coalescence in an integrated tritter
• Phase detection at the quantum limit with multi-photon Mach-Zehnder interferometry
• Useful Multiparticle Entanglement and Sub-Shot-Noise Sensitivity in Experimental Phase Estimation
• Measures of macroscopicity for quantum spin systems
• Non-Markovianity, Loschmidt echo and criticality: a unified picture
• Generic entanglement generation, quantum statistics and complementarity
• Interference of Identical Particles from Entanglement to Boson-Sampling
• Heralding two- and four-photon path entanglement on chip
• Many-particle interference beyond many-boson and many-fermion statistics
• Non-monotonic quantum to classical transition in multiparticle interference
• Super-resolving multi-photon interferences with independent light sources
• Accessing the purity of a single photon by the width of the Hong-Ou-Mandel interference
• Quantum states for Heisenberg-limited interferometry
• Four-Photon (In)Distinguishability Transition
• SU(3) Quantum Interferometry with single-photon input pulses
• Observation of detection-dependent multi-photon coherence times
• Coincidence Landscapes for Three-Channel Linear Optical Networks
• Synthesis of arbitrary, two-mode, high visibility N-photon interference patterns
• Macroscopicity in an optomechanical matter-wave interferometer

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Distinguishability and many-particle interference
• Sampling of partially distinguishable bosons and the relation to the multidimensional permanent
• Tomography of a Mode-Tunable Coherent Single-Photon Subtractor
• Quantum interferometers: principles and applications
• Remote preparation of three-photon entangled states via single-photon measurement
• Single-electron coherence: finite temperature versus pure dephasing
• Detection-dependent six-photon NOON state interference
• Disorder-induced dephasing in backscattering-free quantum transport
• Reversed interplay of quantum interference and which-way information in multi-photon entangled states
• Sub-shot-noise interferometry with two-mode quantum states