Using that information, they were able to discriminate various particle types and distinctive features of optical arrangements. The team also showed that this distillation process can be improved, drawing upon established techniques of machine learning, whereby physics provides the key information on which data set should be used to seek the relevant patterns. And because this approach becomes more accurate for bigger numbers of particles, the researchers hope that their findings take us a key step closer to solving the certification problem.

Multi-particle interference is an essential ingredient for fundamental quantum mechanics phenomena and for quantum information processing to provide a computational advantage, as recently emphasized by boson sampling experiments. Hence, developing a reliable and efficient technique to witness its presence is pivotal in achieving the practical implementation of quantum technologies.