Two remote counting events induced by a single photon

Abstract

Motivated by Einstein's thought experiment that a single quantum particle diffracted after a pinhole could in principle produce an action in two or several places on a hemispherical imaging screen, here we explore theoretically the possibility to simultaneously detect the action of a single photon at two remote places. This is considered in a cascade quantum system composed of two spatially distant cavities each coupled to a qubit in the ultrastrong coupling regime. We show that a single-photon pulse incident on the two cavities can simultaneously excite the two remote qubits and lead to two subsequent single-photon detection events even when the separation between them is comparable to the spatial length of the photon pulse. Our results not only uncover new facets of photons at a fundamental level but also have practical applications, such as the generation of remote entanglement by a single photon through a dissipative channel which is otherwise unattainable in the strong-coupling regime.