We investigate the loss of nonclassicality and non-Gaussianity of a single-mode state of the radiation field in contact with a thermal reservoir. The damped density matrix for a Fock-diagonal input is written using the Weyl expansion of the density operator. Analysis of the evolution of the quasiprobability densities reveals the existence of two successive characteristic times of the reservoir which are sufficient to assure the positivity of the Wigner function and, respectively, of the
P representation. We examine the time evolution of non-Gaussianity using three recently introduced distance-type measures. They are based on the Hilbert-Schmidt metric, the relative entropy, and the Bures metric. Specifically, for an
M-photon-added thermal state, we obtain a compact analytic formula of the time-dependent density matrix that is used to evaluate and compare the three non-Gaussianity measures. We find a good consistency of these measures on the sets of damped states. The explicit damped quasiprobability densities are shown to support our general findings regarding the loss of negativities of Wigner and
P functions during decoherence. Finally, we point out that Gaussification of the attenuated field mode is accompanied by a nonmonotonic evolution of the von Neumann entropy of its state conditioned by the initial value of the mean photon number.
Marginal properties of arbitrary s-ordered quasiprobability distribution fucntions are investigated. The positivity of marginal distributions for all quasiprobabilities, interpolating between the Wigner function and the Q representation of the density operator (s\ensuremath{\le}0), is proven. We also show that, on the contrary, marginal distributions of the remaining quasiprobabilities, interpolating between the Wigner function and the P representation (s>0), can take on negative values. General formulas for the marginal distributions are given, and their relations to the actual quantum-mechanical probability distributions for position and momentum are established. Our results provide an interesting generalization of some recent results concerning marginal properties of the P representation [G. S. Agarwal, Opt. Commun. 95, 109 (1993)].
The properties of the displaced Fock states mod a,n) identical to d(a,a*) mod n), (a complex numbers, D(a,a*) displacement operators, n=0,1,2,. . .) are systematically investigated with emphasis on the connections to the Heisenberg-Weyl group and to its irreducible representations. The displaced Fock states comprise the coherent states mod a) identical to mod a,0) as well as the Fock states mod n) identical to mod 0,n) as particular cases. An orthocompleteness relation for the displaced Fock states in the form of the area integral of the operators mod a,m)(a,n mod over the complex a-plane is derived. It generalizes for m=n the well known completeness relation for the coherent states and leads for m not=n to identities expressing the overcompleteness of the displaced Fock states. A basic formula is obtained for the convolution of the operators mod a,m)(a,n mod with the class of Gaussian functions that have exponents proportional to aa*. The connection of the displaced Fock states to the transition operators from the density operator for a single boson mode to quasiprobabilities is studied in general form and specified to the class of transition operators with the displaced Fock states as their eigenstates and connected by convolutions with Gaussian functions to the coherent-state quasiprobability, the Wigner quasiprobability, and the Glauber-Sudarshan quasiprobability.