Colloquium: Quantum information processing with ensembles of identical particles
Abstract
Identical particles underpin most quantum technologies, but the role of indistinguishability in these processes extends far beyond the symmetrization of many-particle states. This Colloquium presents a unified operational perspective on how particle identity, indistinguishability, exchange statistics, and many-particle interference can instead be harnessed as resources for quantum information processing. We first clarify the notions of entanglement and indistinguishability for identical particles, emphasizing their dependence on the accessible measurements and information. We then review how spatial overlap, multiparticle interference, and path identity enable the generation, extraction, protection, and distillation of coherence and entanglement. Their applications to quantum metrology and imaging, state discrimination, teleportation, entanglement swapping, and quantum cloning are examined. Finally, we discuss the thermodynamic role of indistinguishability, from the Gibbs paradox to quantum thermal machines and statistics-driven engines. Across these settings, indistinguishability emerges as a controllable, task-dependent resource whose benefits are determined by state preparation, exchange statistics, interference, and measurement constraints.
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BibTeX
@misc{piccolini2026colloquium,
title = {{Colloquium: Quantum information processing with ensembles of identical particles}},
author = {Matteo Piccolini and Marcin Karczewski and Jin-Shi Xu and Chuan-Feng Li and Guang-Can Guo and Giuseppe Compagno and Farzam Nosrati and Rosario Lo Franco},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.40852},
eprint = {2610.40852},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.40852},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Colloquium: Quantum information processing with ensembles of identical particles
AU - Matteo Piccolini
AU - Marcin Karczewski
AU - Jin-Shi Xu
AU - Chuan-Feng Li
AU - Guang-Can Guo
AU - Giuseppe Compagno
AU - Farzam Nosrati
AU - Rosario Lo Franco
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/29
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.40852
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.40852
AB - Identical particles underpin most quantum technologies, but the role of indistinguishability in these processes extends far beyond the symmetrization of many-particle states. This Colloquium presents a unified operational perspective on how particle identity, indistinguishability, exchange statistics, and many-particle interference can instead be harnessed as resources for quantum information processing. We first clarify the notions of entanglement and indistinguishability for identical particles, emphasizing their dependence on the accessible measurements and information. We then review how spatial overlap, multiparticle interference, and path identity enable the generation, extraction, protection, and distillation of coherence and entanglement. Their applications to quantum metrology and imaging, state discrimination, teleportation, entanglement swapping, and quantum cloning are examined. Finally, we discuss the thermodynamic role of indistinguishability, from the Gibbs paradox to quantum thermal machines and statistics-driven engines. Across these settings, indistinguishability emerges as a controllable, task-dependent resource whose benefits are determined by state preparation, exchange statistics, interference, and measurement constraints.
ER -