Spatial symmetry in few-photon interference and quantum metrology

Abstract

In previous work [Physical Review Letters, 136(6):060807, 2026], we developed a symmetry-based framework for generalized Hong-Ou-Mandel interference and its applications to quantum metrology. Here, we apply this framework to experimentally accessible configurations involving a few photons and explore how it sheds new light on a variety of existing results while suggesting new experimental perspectives. We first reinterpret a two-photon Mach-Zehnder interferometer as a generalized Hong-Ou-Mandel experiment and show how its photon-counting statistics and metrological performance follow from the spatial symmetry of an effective probe state. We then study two coherently pumped parametric photon-pair sources, derive their complete output distribution, and connect source indistinguishability with spatial symmetry. Finally, we extend the discussion to a three-mode interferometer and show that the same symmetry principles provide a natural description of three-photon interference in tritter configurations.