Spatial symmetry in few-photon interference and quantum metrology
Abstract
In previous work [Physical Review Letters, 136(6):060807, 2026], we developed a symmetry-based framework for generalized Hong-Ou-Mandel interference and its applications to quantum metrology. Here, we apply this framework to experimentally accessible configurations involving a few photons and explore how it sheds new light on a variety of existing results while suggesting new experimental perspectives. We first reinterpret a two-photon Mach-Zehnder interferometer as a generalized Hong-Ou-Mandel experiment and show how its photon-counting statistics and metrological performance follow from the spatial symmetry of an effective probe state. We then study two coherently pumped parametric photon-pair sources, derive their complete output distribution, and connect source indistinguishability with spatial symmetry. Finally, we extend the discussion to a three-mode interferometer and show that the same symmetry principles provide a natural description of three-photon interference in tritter configurations.
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BibTeX
@misc{descamps2026spatial,
title = {{Spatial symmetry in few-photon interference and quantum metrology}},
author = {Éloi Descamps and Pérola Milman},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.12786},
eprint = {2609.12786},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.12786},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Spatial symmetry in few-photon interference and quantum metrology
AU - Éloi Descamps
AU - Pérola Milman
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/11
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.12786
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.12786
AB - In previous work [Physical Review Letters, 136(6):060807, 2026], we developed a symmetry-based framework for generalized Hong-Ou-Mandel interference and its applications to quantum metrology. Here, we apply this framework to experimentally accessible configurations involving a few photons and explore how it sheds new light on a variety of existing results while suggesting new experimental perspectives. We first reinterpret a two-photon Mach-Zehnder interferometer as a generalized Hong-Ou-Mandel experiment and show how its photon-counting statistics and metrological performance follow from the spatial symmetry of an effective probe state. We then study two coherently pumped parametric photon-pair sources, derive their complete output distribution, and connect source indistinguishability with spatial symmetry. Finally, we extend the discussion to a three-mode interferometer and show that the same symmetry principles provide a natural description of three-photon interference in tritter configurations.
ER -