Quantum MIMO Channel Modeling in Turbulent Free-Space Optical Links

Quantum Physics [Submitted on 8 Apr 2026] Quantum MIMO Channel Modeling in Turbulent Free-Space Optical Links Heyang Peng, Seid Koudia, Semih Oktay, Mert Bayraktar, Symeon Chatzinotas Free-space optical (FSO) links supporting spatial multiplexing provide a natural physical realization of Quantum MIMO channels. We develop a first-principles model for Quantum MIMO channels derived directly from wave-optical propagation through three-dimensional atmospheric turbulence. The framework explicitly accounts for intermodal crosstalk, finite detection apertures, and the system-bath separation induced by spatial-mode projection. We distinguish between distinguishable and indistinguishable photon regimes, showing that indistinguishability leads to intrinsically many-body interference effects described by matrix permanents. To obtain a completely positive and trace-preserving logical description, we introduce an erasure-extended encoding in which turbulence-induced leakage and photon loss are mapped to flagged erasure states. The resulting Quantum MIMO channel naturally reduces to a correlated n-qubit erasure channel, with correlations arising from the shared turbulent medium. Limiting regimes in which correlated Pauli channels emerge as effective approximations are also identified. Comments: 13 pages, 4 figures Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2604.06931 [quant-ph]   (or arXiv:2604.06931v1 [quant-ph] for this version)   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2604.06931 Focus to learn more Submission history From: Heyang Peng [view email] [v1] Wed, 8 Apr 2026 10:43:20 UTC (1,010 KB) Access Paper: HTML (experimental) view license Current browse context: quant-ph < prev   |   next > new | recent | 2026-04 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar Export BibTeX Citation 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 Demos Related Papers About arXivLabs Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)