Optimal Interaction Free Localization with Multipath Interferometers

Quantum Physics arXiv:2607.26293 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 28 Jul 2026] Title:Optimal Interaction Free Localization with Multipath Interferometers Authors:Anubhav Chaturvedi, Jorge Escandón-Monardes, Esteban S. Gómez, Gustavo Lima, Stephen P. Walborn View a PDF of the paper titled Optimal Interaction Free Localization with Multipath Interferometers, by Anubhav Chaturvedi and 4 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Interaction-free measurement (IFM) certifies the presence of an absorbing object without a photon ever being absorbed by it. When several candidate locations are available, existing protocols can also identify which one holds the absorber, but they do so by testing paths sequentially through two-path interferometers, resolving a binary presence question at each step. We propose a different approach: probing all candidate locations at once, with the photon prepared in a coherent superposition across every path before a single measurement resolves the outcome. We prove that a three-stage protocol built on a $d$-path interferometer attains the exact one-shot optimum for this task, and we extend it to $k$ absorbers among $d$ paths, where the no-absorption branch encodes the entire absorber subset coherently rather than revealing individual locations one by one. The dark port therefore ceases to be a mere witness of presence and becomes a location-resolving signal. We then move beyond single-pass strategies using the quantum-comb formalism, casting the problem as an exact optimization over all multi-pass strategies and showing that adaptive protocols surpass the one-shot ceiling. Enriching the interferometer geometry with one additional path guaranteed to be empty, we show that sequential scanning, bright-port recycling, and Zeno-type interrogation all become particular feasible strategies within this same optimization, rather than separate benchmarks to compare against. This unified formulation identifies the optimal interaction-free localization strategy for any given set of resources, opening a route toward loss-resilient quantum imaging protocols for the study of fragile, absorption-sensitive samples. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2607.26293 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2607.26293v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2607.26293 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Anubhav Chaturvedi [view email] [v1] Tue, 28 Jul 2026 21:35:20 UTC (320 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Optimal Interaction Free Localization with Multipath Interferometers, by Anubhav Chaturvedi and 4 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-07 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)