Group theory of interferometric amplitudes in the limit of very many particles

Partial distinguishability is now recognized as important in quantum technologies because it directly controls the structure of multi-particle quantum interference, which underpins the advantage of many photonic platforms for computing, sensing, and communication. In realistic devices, photons (or other identical particles) are never perfectly identical: residual differences in time of arrival, spectrum, polarization, or spatial mode introduce partial distinguishability, turning ideal coherent interference into a mixture of interfering and non-interfering processes. This affects gate fidelities in linear-optical quantum computing, limits precision in interferometric metrology, and determines whether tasks such as boson sampling remain classically intractable. Crucially, recent work has shown that partial distinguishability is not merely a source of experimental “noise” but a quantifiable resource parameter that can be modelled, measured, and sometimes mitigated or even exploited. This project is about understanding and controlling partial distinguishability so it can be used for applications such as benchmarking quantum advantage, designing scalable photon sources and interferometers, and defining realistic performance thresholds for near-term quantum technologies.

Faculty Supervisor:

Hubert de Guise

Student:

Partner:

Universidad de los Andes

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Quantum Science

University:

Lakehead University

Program: