Abstract
We give a full description of the problem of multi-boson correlation sampling (MBCS) at the output of a random interferometer for single input photons in arbitrary multi-mode pure states. The MBCS problem is the task of sampling at the interferometer output from the probability distribution associated with polarization- and time-resolved detections. We discuss the richness of the physics and the complexity of the MBCS problem for non-identical input photons. We also compare the MBCS problem with the standard boson sampling problem, where the input photons are assumed to be identical and the system is “classically” averaging over the detection times and polarizations.
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Acknowledgments
V.T. is extremely glad to dedicate this work to the memory of Professor Howard Brandt. His enormous contribution to the field of quantum information is a treasure which will benefit science forever.
Funding V.T. acknowledges the support of the German Space Agency DLR with funds provided by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) under Grant No. DLR 50 WM 1556. This work was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of Baden-Württemberg (Az: 33-7533-30-10/19/2).
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Appendices
Appendix 1: Correlation functions as expectation values of permanents of operator matrices
We derive the expression in Eq. (8) of the correlation function \(G^{(\mathscr {D},\mathscr {S})}_{\{t_j,{\varvec{p}}_j\}}\) for multi-mode single-photon states. Inserting Eq. (5) into Eq. (6), we obtain
which, after interchanging the order of the product and the two summations, becomes
Here, the summation over the 2N indices \(\{i_j,i_j'\}_{j=1,\ldots ,N}\) covers all possible ways the N sources contribute to the product of 2N field operators in the expectation value in Eq. (6), independently of the input state.
Equation (27) can be simplified by recalling that the input state is the product of single-photon states in each of the input ports. Thus, since each source can at most contribute one photon, the expression \(\prod _{j=1}^N \big ( {\varvec{p}}_j \cdot {\hat{{\varvec{E}}}}^{(+)}_{i_j}(t_j-\Delta t) \big ) \vert {\mathscr {S}}\rangle \) is non-vanishing only if the indices \(i_j\ (j=1,\ldots ,N)\) take pairwise different values. Introducing the symmetric group \(\varSigma _N\) of all permutations \(\sigma \) of N elements, we find that in the non-vanishing cases, the indices take the values \(i_j = \sigma (j)\), with \(\sigma \in \varSigma _N\). The same argument can also be made for the possible values of the indices \(i_j'\). Therefore, the correlation function in Eq. (27) reduces to
which, with the definition of the operator matrix \({\hat{\mathscr {M}}}_{\{t_j,{\varvec{p}}_j\}}^{(\mathscr {D},\mathscr {S})}\) in Eq. (7), becomes
Appendix 2: Correlation functions for multi-mode single-photon states
We demonstrate here the expression for the correlation function for multi-mode single-photon states, found in Eq. (11). From the definition of the input state in Eq. (1), we find the expression
for the terms in Eq. (28). By using the definition of the single-photon states in Eq. (2) and the field operators
in the narrow bandwidth approximation, we obtain
In the narrow bandwidth approximation, we can approximately expand the integration over \(\omega \) to the complete real axis. By using the definition of a Fourier transform
we then find
By substituting this result together with Eq. (29), Eq. (28) reduces to the expression
in Eq. (11).
Appendix 3: Probabilities for non-resolved detections
1.1 Accounting for photon bunching
We now derive the probabilities (18) in the case of non-resolved detections in time and polarization. Toward this end, we have to take into account that the correlation function in Eq. (6) is symmetric under permutation of the arguments \(\{t_j,{\varvec{p}}_j\}\) and \(\{t_{j'},{\varvec{p}}_{j'}\}\) if both corresponding photons are detected in the same output port, i.e., if \(d_j = d_{j'}\).
For example, in the case of \(N=2\) and with both photons detected in the same output port d (\(\mathscr {D}=\{d,d\}\)), the correlation function
is symmetric with respect to the two possible detection times and respective polarizations \(\{t_1,{\varvec{p}}_1\}\) and \(\{t_2,{\varvec{p}}_2\}\): \(G^{(\{d,d\},\mathscr {S})}_{\{t_1,{\varvec{p}}_1;t_2,{\varvec{p}}_2\}} = G^{(\{d,d\},\mathscr {S})}_{\{t_2,{\varvec{p}}_2;t_1,{\varvec{p}}_1\}}\). This reflects the fact that both expressions describe the same probability rate of two photons being detected in the output port d, one at time \(t_1\) and with polarization \({\varvec{p}}_1\) and the other at time \(t_2\) and with polarization \({\varvec{p}}_2\).
Therefore, the corresponding probability
for non-resolved detections contains the additional factor 1 / 2! in order to avoid double counting.
Generalizing to the case of arbitrary samples \(\mathscr {D}\) in a 2M-port interferometer, where d is contained \(n_d\) times in \(\mathscr {D}\) (\(\sum _{d=1}^{M} n_d = N\)), we find the time- and polarization-averaged probabilities
in Eq. (18).
1.2 Integrated probabilities
We derive now Eq. (24) from the general expression of the probability \(P_{\text {av}}(\mathscr {D};\mathscr {S})\) in Eq. (18) for non-resolved detections. We first substitute in Eq. (18) the value for the correlation function in Eq. (30), yielding
With the substitution \(\sigma ' \rightarrow \rho \circ \sigma \), where \(\rho \in \varSigma _N\), Eq. (31) becomes
Here, the second product can be written as a product over \(i=\sigma (j)\) instead of j since \(\sigma \) is bijective, rendering this expression independent of the permutation \(\sigma \):
By using the definitions of \(f_{\rho }(\mathscr {S})\) and \(\mathscr {A}_{\rho }^{(\mathscr {D},\mathscr {S})}\) in Eqs. (20) and (23), Eq. (32) finally reduces to the expression
in Eq. (24).
Appendix 4: Two-photon indistinguishability factors for Gaussian spectral distributions
We derive the two-photon indistinguishability factors for Gaussian spectral distributions in Eq. (22). By inserting Eq. (21) into Eq. (19), we obtain the Gaussian integral
which, using the well-known relation \(\int \limits _{-\infty }^{\infty }dx \exp (-a x^2 + bx +c) = \sqrt{\pi /a} \,\exp (b^2/(4a) + c)\), can be evaluated as
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Tamma, V., Laibacher, S. Multi-boson correlation sampling. Quantum Inf Process 15, 1241–1262 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-015-1177-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-015-1177-8