Orbit dimensions in linear and Gaussian quantum optics

Abstract: In sub-universal quantum platforms such as linear or Gaussian quantum optics, quantum states can behave as different resources, in regard to the extent of their accessible state space (called their orbit) under the action of the restricted unitary group. We propose to study the dimension of a quantum state's orbit (as a manifold in the Hilbert space), a simple yet nontrivial topological property that can quantify "how many" states it can reach. As natural invariants under the group, these structural properties of orbits alone can reveal fundamental impossibilities of enacting certain unitary transformations deterministically. We showcase a general and straightforward way to compute orbit dimensions for states of finite support in the Fock basis, by leveraging the group's Lie algebra. We also study genericity and robustness properties of orbit dimensions, and propose approaches to efficiently evaluate them experimentally. Besides, we highlight that the orbit dimension under the Gaussian unitary group serves a non-Gaussianity witness, which we expect to be universal for multimode pure states. While proven in the discrete variable setting (i.e. passive linear optics with an energy cutoff), the validity of our work in the continuous variable setting does rest on a technical conjecture which we do not prove.