Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Two-Photon Bunching from Geometric Phase Diffusion: Hong–Ou–Mandel Interference without Wavefunctions

Wells, A.R.

Published Dec 15, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This work presents a trajectory-based, phase-geometric account of Hong–Ou–Mandel (HOM) two-photon interference within Dual-Frame Theory (DFT). Interference and photon bunching emerge from deterministic microscopic phase evolution under a discrete motion budget, without wavefunctions or Hilbert-space postulates. Deterministic Monte Carlo simulations confirm linear and quadratic phase-variance scaling and reproduce the HOM dip using only geometric phase statistics. All numerical results are fully reproducible using the accompanying public code and datasets, which enable independent regeneration of all figures and tables.

DOI
10.5281/zenodo.17933939

Related papers

Frame dragging and the Hong-Ou-Mandel dip: Gravitational effects in multiphoton interference

Anthony J. Brady, Stav Haldar

Applying quantum field theory on a classical, curved space-time has led to the enthralling theoretical predictions of, e.g., black hole evaporation and particle creation in the early, expanding universe.However, the prospects of observing such in the near to mid future seem far from practical.This is discouraging because extrapolation of general relativity "down to the Hilbert space level," though expected, carries no empirical support as of yet.On the other hand, fueled by the continuing developments in quantum technology, there has been growing interest in the prospect of observing more modest effects of general relativity at the level of quantum interference phenomena.Motivated by these recent developments, in this work, we investigate the Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) effect-a two-photon quantum-interference effect-in the space-time of a rotating spherical mass.In particular, we propose and analyze a common-path setup restricted to the surface of the Earth and show that, in principle, gravitational frame dragging induces observable shifts in the two-photon HOM dip.For completeness and correspondence with current literature, we also analyze the emergence of gravitational time dilation, for a dual-arm interferometer.The formalism thus presented establishes a basis for encoding general-relativistic effects into local, multiphoton, quantum-interference experiments.We also consider signatures of noninertial reference-frame effects on two-photon interference such as, e.g., the Sagnac effect induced by Earth's rotation, which seems detectable with current quantum-optical technology.This can be viewed as a stepping-stone towards the more ambitious goal of observing gravitational frame dragging at the level of individual photons.

arXiv:2006.04221•Physical Review Research•Apr 8, 2021•19 citations

Interference of probability amplitudes: a simple demonstration within the Hong–Ou–Mandel experiment

Daniel Giovannini, Jacquiline Romero, Miles J. Padgett

The dip in the Hong–Ou–Mandel (HOM) experiment is frequently attributed to the interference of two indistinguishable photons. The width of the dip is inversely proportional to the spectral bandwidth of the light. We confirm that this width is unchanged regardless of where the bandwidth selection happens, i.e. prior to the photons combining in the beam splitter or just before the detectors; the latter case seemingly after the interference of the photons. The equivalence of the results from these two cases is a simple demonstration that the interference in the HOM experiment is not between photons, but rather between probability amplitudes.

Journal of Optics•Mar 1, 2014•3 citations

The non-local Hong-Ou-Mandel effect

Yuki Kodama, Jonte R. Hance, Holger F. Hofmann

Two-photon interference effects arise because photons are indistinguishable particles. In the wellknown Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) effect, the transmission of two photons at a beam splitter interferes destructively with the reflection of both photons, requiring both photons to "bunch up" by leaving the beam splitter on the same side. Here, we show that the interference between locally propagating photons and photons exchanged by a mode swap can be implemented by post-selecting spatially separated photon outputs of a four-path interferometer. Even though the photons detected at spatially separated locations must have travelled along paths that never met up at the same beam splitter, the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect can be observed in correlations between the output ports that originate from the association of detection events with non-local output modes defined by the two single photon inputs. Local phase shifts can be used to map out non-classical correlations between the photons detected at different output locations, clarifying the role of linear optics in generating entanglement between spatially separated photons. Our work thus establishes a fundamental relation between multiphoton interference and entanglement, opening the door to new possibilities in optical quantum technologies.

quant-pharXiv:2604.10886•Apr 14, 2026•0 citations

Frequency-domain Hong–Ou–Mandel interference with linear optics

Poolad Imany, Ogaga D. Odele, Mohammed S. Alshaykh +3 more

The Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interference is one of the most fundamental quantum-mechanical effects that reveal a nonclassical behavior of single photons. Two identical photons that are incident on the input ports of an unbiased beam splitter always exit the beam splitter together from the same output port, an effect referred to as photon bunching. In this Letter, we utilize a single electro-optic phase modulator as a probabilistic frequency beam splitter, which we exploit to observe HOM interference between two photons that are in different spectral modes, yet are identical in other characteristics. Our approach enables linear optical quantum information processing protocols using the frequency degree of freedom in photons such as quantum computing techniques with linear optics.

Optics Letters•Jun 1, 2018•52 citations

Two-photon interference and the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect

Benjamin Vest, Lionel Jacubowiez

The Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) experiment is a landmark in quantum optics. A labwork version of this famous twophoton interference effect was developed at Institut d’Optique for students in engineering and MSc tracks. The setup enables the observation of the iconic HOM “dip” and the measurement of photon indistinguishability.

Photoniques•Jan 1, 2024•0 citations

Versatile quantum state tomography of photonic states via Hong-Ou-Mandel interference

Yoshiaki Tsujimoto, Rikizo Ikuta, Kentaro Wakui +2 more

Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interference [1] is a bunching phenomenon based on the bosonic nature of photons. When two photons that are perfectly indistinguishable from each other are mixed using a half beam splitter (HBS), they always bunch and exhibit the absence of coincidence resulting in a specific interferogram called HOM dip. The important property of the HOM interference is that the decrease in coincidence reflects the degree of indistinguishability of the input photons, i.e., it provides information regarding the probability of overlap of the input photons. Thus, this property should enable the estimation of a target photon in an unknown quantum state using a probe photon in a known state. In this work, we realize the above concept as the quantum state tomography (QST) applicable to d-dimensional photonic qudits, which we call HOM-QST [2]. Interestingly, we observe that HOM-QST is robust against various imperfections and that the probe photon can be replaced by classical light. Furthermore, we confirm this by demonstrating a proof-of-principle experiment using two-dimensional polarization qubits.

JSAP-OSA Joint Symposia•Jan 1, 2023•0 citations
This work presents a trajectory-based, phase-geometric account of Hong–Ou–Mandel (HOM) two-photon interference within Dual-Frame Theory (DFT). Interference and photon bunching emerge from deterministic microscopic phase evolution under a discrete motion budget, without wavefunctions or Hilbert-space postulates. Deterministic Monte Carlo simulations confirm linear and quadratic phase-variance scaling and reproduce the HOM dip using only geometric phase statistics. All numerical results are fully reproducible using the accompanying public code and datasets, which enable independent regeneration of all figures and tables.
Applying quantum field theory on a classical, curved space-time has led to the enthralling theoretical predictions of, e.g., black hole evaporation and particle creation in the early, expanding universe.However, the prospects of observing such in the near to mid future seem far from practical.This is discouraging because extrapolation of general relativity "down to the Hilbert space level," though expected, carries no empirical support as of yet.On the other hand, fueled by the continuing developments in quantum technology, there has been growing interest in the prospect of observing more modest effects of general relativity at the level of quantum interference phenomena.Motivated by these recent developments, in this work, we investigate the Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) effect-a two-photon quantum-interference effect-in the space-time of a rotating spherical mass.In particular, we propose and analyze a common-path setup restricted to the surface of the Earth and show that, in principle, gravitational frame dragging induces observable shifts in the two-photon HOM dip.For completeness and correspondence with current literature, we also analyze the emergence of gravitational time dilation, for a dual-arm interferometer.The formalism thus presented establishes a basis for encoding general-relativistic effects into local, multiphoton, quantum-interference experiments.We also consider signatures of noninertial reference-frame effects on two-photon interference such as, e.g., the Sagnac effect induced by Earth's rotation, which seems detectable with current quantum-optical technology.This can be viewed as a stepping-stone towards the more ambitious goal of observing gravitational frame dragging at the level of individual photons.
The dip in the Hong–Ou–Mandel (HOM) experiment is frequently attributed to the interference of two indistinguishable photons. The width of the dip is inversely proportional to the spectral bandwidth of the light. We confirm that this width is unchanged regardless of where the bandwidth selection happens, i.e. prior to the photons combining in the beam splitter or just before the detectors; the latter case seemingly after the interference of the photons. The equivalence of the results from these two cases is a simple demonstration that the interference in the HOM experiment is not between photons, but rather between probability amplitudes.
Two-photon interference effects arise because photons are indistinguishable particles. In the wellknown Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) effect, the transmission of two photons at a beam splitter interferes destructively with the reflection of both photons, requiring both photons to "bunch up" by leaving the beam splitter on the same side. Here, we show that the interference between locally propagating photons and photons exchanged by a mode swap can be implemented by post-selecting spatially separated photon outputs of a four-path interferometer. Even though the photons detected at spatially separated locations must have travelled along paths that never met up at the same beam splitter, the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect can be observed in correlations between the output ports that originate from the association of detection events with non-local output modes defined by the two single photon inputs. Local phase shifts can be used to map out non-classical correlations between the photons detected at different output locations, clarifying the role of linear optics in generating entanglement between spatially separated photons. Our work thus establishes a fundamental relation between multiphoton interference and entanglement, opening the door to new possibilities in optical quantum technologies.
The Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interference is one of the most fundamental quantum-mechanical effects that reveal a nonclassical behavior of single photons. Two identical photons that are incident on the input ports of an unbiased beam splitter always exit the beam splitter together from the same output port, an effect referred to as photon bunching. In this Letter, we utilize a single electro-optic phase modulator as a probabilistic frequency beam splitter, which we exploit to observe HOM interference between two photons that are in different spectral modes, yet are identical in other characteristics. Our approach enables linear optical quantum information processing protocols using the frequency degree of freedom in photons such as quantum computing techniques with linear optics.
Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interference [1] is a bunching phenomenon based on the bosonic nature of photons. When two photons that are perfectly indistinguishable from each other are mixed using a half beam splitter (HBS), they always bunch and exhibit the absence of coincidence resulting in a specific interferogram called HOM dip. The important property of the HOM interference is that the decrease in coincidence reflects the degree of indistinguishability of the input photons, i.e., it provides information regarding the probability of overlap of the input photons. Thus, this property should enable the estimation of a target photon in an unknown quantum state using a probe photon in a known state. In this work, we realize the above concept as the quantum state tomography (QST) applicable to d-dimensional photonic qudits, which we call HOM-QST [2]. Interestingly, we observe that HOM-QST is robust against various imperfections and that the probe photon can be replaced by classical light. Furthermore, we confirm this by demonstrating a proof-of-principle experiment using two-dimensional polarization qubits.