Abstract This paper aims to stress the role of the Cahill–Glauber quasi-probability densities in defining, detecting, and quantifying the non-classicality of field states in quantum optics. The distance between a given pure state and the set of all pure classical states is called here a geometric degree of non-classicality. As such, we investigate non-classicality of a pure single-mode state of the radiation field by using the coherent states as a reference set of pure classical states. It turns out that any such distance is expressed in terms of the maximal value of the Husimi Q function. As an insightful application we consider the de-Gaussification process produced when preparing a quantum state by adding p photons to a pure Gaussian one. For a coherent-state input, we get an analytic degree of non-classicality which compares interestingly with the previously evaluated entanglement potential. Then we show that addition of a single photon to a squeezed vacuum state causes a considerable enhancement of non-classicality, especially at weak and moderate squeezing of the original state. By contrast, addition of further photons is less effective.
A bosonic state is commonly considered nonclassical (or quantum) if its Glauber-Sudarshan
P function is not a classical probability density, which implies that only coherent states and their statistical mixtures are classical. We quantify the nonclassicality of a single qubit, defined by the vacuum and single-photon states, by applying the following four well-known measures of nonclassicality: (1) the nonclassical depth, $\ensuremath{\tau}$, related to the minimal amount of Gaussian noise which changes a nonpositive
P function into a positive one; (2) the nonclassical distance
D, defined as the Bures distance of a given state to the closest classical state, which is the vacuum for the single-qubit Hilbert space; together with (3) the negativity potential (NP), and (4) concurrence potential, which are the nonclassicality measures corresponding to the entanglement measures (i.e., the negativity and concurrence, respectively) for the state generated by mixing a single-qubit state with the vacuum on a balanced beam splitter. We show that complete statistical mixtures of the vacuum and single-photon states are the most nonclassical single-qubit states regarding the distance
D for a fixed value of both the depth $\ensuremath{\tau}$ and NP in the whole range
[0,1] of their values, as well as the NP for a given value of $\ensuremath{\tau}$ such that $\ensuremath{\tau}>0.315\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}4$. Conversely, pure states are the most nonclassical single-qubit states with respect to $\ensuremath{\tau}$ for a given
D, NP versus
D, and $\ensuremath{\tau}$ versus NP. We also show the ``relativity'' of these nonclassicality measures by comparing pairs of single-qubit states: if a state is less nonclassical than another state according to some measure then it might be more nonclassical according to another measure. Moreover, we find that the concurrence potential is equal to the nonclassical distance for single-qubit states. This implies an operational interpretation of the nonclassical distance as the potential for the entanglement of formation.
Abstract Nonclassical states of a quantized light are described in terms of Glauber–Sudarshan distribution, which is not a genuine classical probability distribution. Despite several attempts, defining a uniform measure of nonclassicality (NC) for the single-mode quantum states of light remains an open task. In our previous work Bose and Sanjay Kumar (2017 Phys. Rev . A 95 012330), we have shown that the existing well-known measures fail to quantify the NC of single-mode states that are generated under multiple NC-inducing operations. In this paper, we propose a new quantification of NC for the single-mode quantum states as the difference between the total Wehrl entropy of the state and the maximum Wehrl entropy arising due to its classical characteristics. The classical reference state is chosen at the same randomness, given by the von-Neumann entropy, as the state itself. We further suggest operational interpretation of the proposed measure in terms of phase-space sampling entropy, as well as potential to generate entanglement in the case of pure states. We obtain analytic expressions of NC for pure states and Gaussian mixed states. We show that, along with the states generated under single NC-inducing operations as well as the broader class of states that are generated under multiple NC-inducing operations, our quantification enumerates the NC consistently. However, the evaluation of NC for the non-Gaussian mixed states is subject to extensive numerical computation that lies beyond the scope of the current work. We finally conclude with certain open questions.
Genuine multimode entanglement in continuous variable systems can be quantified by exploring the geometry of the state space, namely, via the generalized geometric measure (GGM). It is defined by the shortest distance of a given multimode state from a nongenuinely multimode entangled state. For the multimode Gaussian states, we derive a closed-form expression of GGM in terms of the symplectic eigenvalues of the reduced states. Following that prescription, the characteristics of GGM for typical three- and four-mode Gaussian states are investigated. In the non-Gaussian paradigm, we compute GGM for photon-added as well as -subtracted states having three and four modes and find that both addition and subtraction of photons enhance the genuine multimode entanglement of the state compared to its Gaussian counterpart. Our analysis reveals that, when an initial three-mode vacuum state is evolved according to an interacting Hamiltonian, photon addition is more beneficial in increasing GGM compared to photon subtraction, while the scenario reverses when one considers the four mode non-Gaussian states. Specifically, subtracting photons from four-mode squeezed vacuum states almost always results in higher multimode entanglement content than that of photon addition to both single as well as multimode and constrained as well as unconstrained operations. Furthermore, we observe that GGM freezes under subtraction of photons involving multiple modes, in some specific cases. This feature does not appear while adding photons. Finally, we relate the enhancements of GGM with the distance-based non-Gaussianity measure.
Abstract Recently, experimental demonstrations of the pair coherent state of microwave photons in superconducting cavities (PRX QUANTUM 4, 020319, 2023) and experimental results of photon addition and subtraction in multimode entangled optical fields (Physical Review Research 6, 013065, 2024) were reported. Motivated by these results, we study the nonclassical properties of non-Gaussian photon-added and subtracted pair coherent states. More specifically, we explore quantum polarization, quadrature squeezing, sum and difference squeezing, Shchukin-Vogel Entanglement, EPR entanglement correlation, two-mode higher-order antibunching, and quasiprobability distribution function (Q function). The effect of photon addition and subtraction is visible in this study with different parameters, as we compared our results with the original pair coherent state (PCS). This study provides a deeper understanding of the quantum behavior of modified pair coherent states, with potential implications for advancements in quantum optics and information processing.
We address the issue of quantifying the non-Gaussian character of a bosonic quantum state and introduce a non-Gaussianity measure based on the Hilbert-Schmidt distance between the state under examination and a reference Gaussian state. We analyze in detail the properties of the proposed measure and exploit it to evaluate the non-Gaussianity of some relevant single-mode and multimode quantum states. The evolution of non-Gaussianity is also analyzed for quantum states undergoing the processes of Gaussification by loss and de-Gaussification by photon-subtraction. The suggested measure is easily computable for any state of a bosonic system and allows one to define a corresponding measure for the non-Gaussian character of a quantum operation.
We analyze the polarization of a quantum radiation field under a de-Gaussification process. Specifically, we consider the addition of photons to a two-mode thermal state to get mixed non-Gaussian and nonclassical states which are still diagonal in the Fock basis. Stokes-operator-based degrees of polarization and two distance-type measures defined with Hilbert-Schmidt and Bures metrics are investigated. For a better insight we here introduce a polarization degree based on the relative entropy. Polarization of the thermal states is fully investigated and simple closed expressions are found for all the defined degrees. The evaluated degrees for photon-added states are then compared to the corresponding ones for the two-mode thermal states they originate from. We present interesting findings which tell us that some popular degrees of polarization are not fully consistent. However, the most solidly defined degrees, which are based on the Bures metric and relative entropy, clearly indicate an enhancement of polarization through de-Gaussification. This conclusion is supported by the behavior of the degrees of polarization of the Fock states, which are finally discussed as a limit case.