  The performance of photonic $N00N$ states, propagating in an attenuating
medium, is analyzed with respect to phase estimation. It is shown that, for
$N00N$ states propagating through a lossy medium, the Heisenberg limit is never
achieved. It is also shown that, for a given value of $N$, a signal comprised
of an attenuated separable state of $N$ photons will actually produce a better
phase estimate than will a signal comprised of an equally attenuated $N00N$
state, unless the transmittance of the medium is very high. This is a
consequence of the need to utilize measurement operators appropriate to the
different signal states. The result is that, for most practical applications in
realistic scenarios with attenuation, the resolution of $N00N$ state-based
phase estimation not only does not achieve the Heisenberg Limit, but is
actually worse than the Standard Quantum Limit. It is demonstrated that this
performance deficit becomes more pronounced as the number, $N$, of photons in
the signal increases.
