Hannover 2010 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 59: Quantum Information: Atoms and Ions IV / Photons and Nonclassical Light II
Q 59.8: Talk
Friday, March 12, 2010, 12:30–12:45, E 214
Quantum Combinatorics — •Malte Tichy1, Markus Tiersch2, Fernando de Melo3, Florian Mintert1, and Andreas Buchleitner1 — 1Physikalisches Institut, Universität Freiburg, Hermann-Herder-Str. 3, 79104 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany — 2Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Technikerstr. 21A, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria — 3Instituut voor Theoretische Fysica, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium
Interference effects relying on the identity of two photons find an important application in linear-optics based quantum information processing. Here we report on the statistical behavior of an arbitrary number of photons which scatter through a (Bell) multiport beam splitter. In doing so, we consider the realization probability of all possible final arrangements of the photons in the output ports. A versatile predictive law for the suppression of output configurations, hence a generalization of the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect of two photons, is derived. It is furthermore shown to apply for the majority of all possible events. Such multiparticle interference effects dominate at the level of single transition amplitudes, while a generic bosonic signature can be observed when the average number of occupied ports and the typical number of photons per port is considered. The results allow to classify in a common approach several recent experiments and theoretical studies and disclose many accessible quantum statistical effects involving many photons.