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arXiv:1303.6696 · Physical Review A

Measures of quantum state purity and classical degree of polarization

Omar Gamel, Daniel F. V. James

Published Sep 24, 2012• 43 citations
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Abstract

There is a well-known mathematical similarity between two-dimensional classical polarization optics and two-level quantum systems, where the Poincar\'e and Bloch spheres are identical mathematical structures. This analogy implies that the classical degree of polarization and quantum purity are in fact the same quantity. We make extensive use of this analogy to analyze various measures of polarization for higher dimensions proposed in the literature, in particular the $N=3$ case, illustrating interesting relationships that emerge as well as the advantages of each measure. We also propose a different class of measures of entanglement based on the purity of subsystems.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.86.033830

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There is a well-known mathematical similarity between two-dimensional classical polarization optics and two-level quantum systems, where the Poincar'e and Bloch spheres are identical mathematical structures. This analogy implies that the classical degree of polarization and quantum purity are in fact the same quantity. We make extensive use of this analogy to analyze various measures of polarization for higher dimensions proposed in the literature, in particular the N=3N=3N=3 case, illustrating interesting relationships that emerge as well as the advantages of each measure. We also propose a different class of measures of entanglement based on the purity of subsystems.
We comprehensively review the quantum theory of the polarization properties of light. In classical optics, these traits are characterized by the Stokes parameters, which can be geometrically interpreted using the Poincaré sphere. Remarkably, these Stokes parameters can also be applied to the quantum world, but then important differences emerge: now, because fluctuations in the number of photons are unavoidable, one is forced to work in the three-dimensional Poincaré space that can be regarded as a set of nested spheres. Additionally, higher-order moments of the Stokes variables might play a substantial role for quantum states, which is not the case for most classical Gaussian states. This brings about important differences between these two worlds that we review in detail. In particular, the classical degree of polarization produces unsatisfactory results in the quantum domain. We compare alternative quantum degrees and put forth that they order various states differently. Finally, intrinsically nonclassical states are explored, and their potential applications in quantum technologies are discussed.
Several approaches and descriptors have been proposed to characterize the purity of coherency or density matrices describing physical states, including the polarimetric purity of 2D and 3D partially polarized waves. This work introduces two interpretations of the degree of purity: one derived from statistics and another from algebra. In the first one, the degree purity is expressed in terms of the mean and standard deviation of the eigenvalue spectrum of the density or coherency matrix of the corresponding state. The second one expresses the purity in terms of two specific measures obtained by decomposing the coherency matrix as a sum of traceless symmetric, antisymmetric, and scalar matrices. We believe these two approaches offer better insights into the purity measure. Furthermore, interesting relations with existing quantities in polarization optics also are described.
Abstract Entanglement and polarization of pure, two-qubit systems are known to be constrained by the relationship C 2 + P 2 = 1 . Here, C stands for concurrence, a standard measure of entanglement, and P refers to the degree of polarization of either of the two, single-qubit subsystems. The above constraint may be understood as reflecting that a system cannot be in a pure state, if it is entangled with another one. In order to explore the connection between entanglement and polarization beyond two-qubit systems, we addressed states in which at least one of the parties has dimensionality greater than two. The case of pure, tripartite states offered itself as a timely candidate. We focussed on three qubits and studied the connection between one qubit’s polarization and its entanglement with the other two taken together. We derived new constraints, akin to the above one, and submitted them to experimental tests using single photons entangled in polarization. The latter provided two qubits, each one attached to one photon. The third qubit was chosen to be the path (momentum) of one of the photons. Our experimental results confirmed the validity of the new constraints. Our theoretical results hold also for classical light. Possible experimental tests could be done with so-called structured light beams.
There has been much discussion in the literature about rival measures of classical polarization in three dimensions. We gather and compare the various proposed measures of polarization, creating a geometric representation of the polarization state space in the process. We use majorization, previously used in quantum information, as a criterion to establish a partial ordering on the polarization state space. Using this criterion and other considerations, the most useful polarization measure in three dimensions is found to be one dependent on the Bloch vector decomposition of the polarization matrix.
The classical analogues of quantum correlations have been the subject of considerable interest in the past few years; however, all of these investigations consider the classical analogue of only pure quantum mechanical states. In this work, we study mixed classical light states and derive relations between the polarization coherence of the field and the (classical) entanglement between its degrees of freedom. We show, for a specific model of mixed states, where the purity is determined by a single parameter, how the coherence shared between polarization and entanglement shrinks as the level of purity decreases. The sum of the square of polarization and entanglement remains constant, a behavior consistent with previous results [Phys. Rev. Lett.117, 153901 (2016)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.117.153901] of pure states, even though the constant for the mixed-state case is now smaller in value.