Double-Fock superposition interferometry for differential diagnosis of decoherence

Abstract

Interferometric signals are degraded by decoherence, which encompasses dephasing, mixing and any distinguishing which-path information. These three paradigmatic processes are fundamentally different, but, for coherent, single-photon andN00N-states, they degrade interferometric visibility in the very same way, which impedes the diagnosis of the cause for reduced visibility in a single experiment. Weintroduce a versatile formalism for many-boson interferometry based on double-sided Feynman diagrams, which we apply to a protocol for differential decoherence diagnosis: twin-Fock states |N, N〉withN ≥ 2 reveal towhat extent decoherence is due to path distinguishability or tomixing, while double-Fock superpositions |N: M〉 = (|N, M〉 + |M, N〉) /√2 withN > M > 0 additionally witness the degree of dephasing. Hence, double-Fock superposition interferometry permits the differential diagnosis of decoherence processes in a single experiment, indispensable for the assessment of interferometers.