{
  "abstract": "Negative Kirkwood--Dirac quasiprobabilities are credited with the quantum advantage of interaction-free measurement and postselected metrology. We test that claim on the task interaction-free measurement was designed for: learning about a sample letting it absorb as little light as possible. The Kirkwood--Dirac distribution of path and output gives the linear response to a weak sample: its real part responds to absorption, its imaginary part to a phase. For a pure single photon passing once through any interferometer, the Fisher information about transmittance per absorbed photon is the direct-transmission value minus a sum of squared imaginary parts: no interferometer or readout beats direct transmission. Negativity plays no role beyond concentrating information in weakly lit outputs. The imaginary parts of the Kirkwood-Dirac distribution depend on the output basis here, not on the sample, so a basis exists in which every term is real, which is optimal. A single photon gains information per absorbed photon only through a phase response, which for an optical line needs a thick or inhomogeneously broadened sample, or through many passes when absorptions go uncounted, as shown by a critically coupled resonator. For detecting a weak absorber, negativity gives a single-shot advantage that does not accumulate over multiple trials; advantage instead accumulates when there are outputs which are dark without the object, a case which needs no negativity.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2610.00740",
  "author_total": 1,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Jonte R. Hance"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/b9088ttk3qsv6.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2610.00740",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "b9088ttk3qsv6",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.00740",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "LicenseRef-arXiv-nonexclusive-1.0",
  "licence_label": "arXiv licence",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "physics.optics"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "quant-ph"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2610.00740",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-01",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/b9088ttk3qsv6.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:26:03Z",
      "native_id": "2610.00740",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.00740"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:physics.optics",
      "subfield": "optics-photonics"
    },
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:quant-ph",
      "subfield": "quantum"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Negative quasiprobabilities redistribute (and complex ones reduce) the information in unabsorbed photons",
  "title_text": "Negative quasiprobabilities redistribute (and complex ones reduce) the information in unabsorbed photons",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-09T00:20:15Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/b9088ttk3qsv6",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}