We develop a framework for solving the action of a three-channel passive optical interferometer on single-photon pulse inputs to each channel using SU(3) group-theoretic methods, which can be readily generalized to higher-order photon-coincidence experiments. We show that features of the coincidence plots vs relative time delays of photons yield information about permanents, immanants, and determinants of the interferometer SU(3) matrix.
@article{arxiv.1208.5677,
title = {SU(3) Quantum Interferometry with single-photon input pulses},
author = {Si-Hui Tan and Yvonne Y. Gao and Hubert de Guise and Barry C. Sanders},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1208.5677},
year = {2013}
}