The mathematical model describing a light beam prepared in an arbitrary quantum optical state is a quasifree quantum stochastic process on the C* algebra of the canonical commutatation relations. For such quantum stochastic processes the concept of stochastic states is introduced. Stochastic quantum states have a classical analog in the following sense: If the light beam is prepared in a stochastic state, one can construct a generalized classical stochastic process, such that the distributions of the quantum observables and the classical random variables coincide. A sufficient algebraic condition for the stochasticity of a quantum state is formulated. The introduced formalism generalizes the Wigner representation from a single field mode to a continuum of modes. For the special case of a single field mode the stochasticity condition provides a new criterion for the positivity of the Wigner function related to the given state. As an example the quantized eletromagnetic field in empty space at temperature T=0 is discussed. It turns out that the corresponding classical stochastic process is not a white noise but a colored noise with a linearly increasing spectrum.
The mathematical model describing a light beam prepared in an arbitrary quantum optical state is a quasifree quantum stochastic process on the C* algebra of the canonical commutatation relations. For such quantum stochastic processes the concept of stochastic states is introduced. Stochastic quantum states have a classical analog in the following sense: If the light beam is prepared in a stochastic state, one can construct a generalized classical stochastic process, such that the distributions of the quantum observables and the classical random variables coincide. A sufficient algebraic condition for the stochasticity of a quantum state is formulated. The introduced formalism generalizes the Wigner representation from a single field mode to a continuum of modes. For the special case of a single field mode the stochasticity condition provides a new criterion for the positivity of the Wigner function related to the given state. As an example the quantized eletromagnetic field in empty space at temperature T=0 is discussed. It turns out that the corresponding classical stochastic process is not a white noise but a colored noise with a linearly increasing spectrum.
The squeezed white noise states of the quantum optics literature are identified with specific quasifree states on the bosonic C *-Weyl (resp. CCR) algebra, which are not gauge invariant. Their properties are discussed, and concrete realizations of their GNS-representations are given. The squeezed white noise states are obtained from the chaotic temperature (or white noise states) by the application of squeezing Bogoliubov transformations, which may lead to a noise reduction in selected modes. A squeezing strength is determined, below which the squeezed white noise states remain classical and above which they are rendered non-classical. We further couple additional systems to the squeezed white noise, the quantum character of which are leading to a large class of stationary quantum Markov processes with related quantum stochastic calculus. Their interactions are described in terms of unitary cocycles, which arise from adapted additive cocycles by means of solutions of stochastic differential equations resp. by stochastic Itô integrals. The restriction of the Markovian dynamics to the sub-system leads to a quantum semi-group, for which the Lindblad generator is of detailed balance type. Finally the stochastic Itô table for squeezed white noise is derived. From the latter non-classicality of the squeezed white noise process can now be checked by inspection.
In this paper we formulate a new stochastic description of quantum mechanics in phase space. The theory of phase-space representations of quantum mechanics, initiated by Wigner, Groenewold, and Moyal and systematized recently by Agarwal and Wolf is essentially a single-time theory, in that it deals only with the quantum-mechanical joint distribution functions for position and momentum at a single instant of time. We develop a natural multitime extension of such a single-time theory. We consider a class of multitime phase-space distribution functions such that an arbitrary quantum multitime correlation function can be expressed as a phase-space average of the form encountered in classical stochastic theories. We study the nonclassical features of these multitime distribution functions and show that they may be considered as characterizing a generalized stochastic process in phase space. We demonstrate that the multitime distribution functions that correspond to Hamiltonian evolution of isolated quantum systems satisfy a certain condition that may be regarded as characterizing a generalized Markov process. We also investigate certain special features of the generalized stochastic processes that characterize the evolution of open systems.
It is shown that a stochastic process can be viewed as a set of states (normalized positive linear functionals) over an Abelian C*-algebra. Alternatively, the stochastic process can be associated with a set of representations of the algebra as a subalgebra of the (noncommutative) C*-algebra of bounded operators in a Hilbert space. Then, an operator equation can be associated with every stochastic equation in some general conditions. The formalism is applied to Brownian motion. Then, we study the nonrelativistic motion of a single particle in stochastic electrodynamics, a theory which has been proposed as a possible alternative to quantum mechanics. The equations of motion, which are derived, coincide with the basic ones of quantum mechanics. The differences between this theory and quantum mechanics are summarized.
In this chapter we shall be using the formalism of Chapter 4 to describe some properties of the quantized free electromagnetic field, emphasizing the analogies and differences with classical electromagnetism. The analogies explain why classical optics was so successful, to the extent that, even though light was not quantized, it was able to describe almost all known optical phenomena up until the 1970s. The differences highlight typical quantum behaviour, with no classical equivalent, which lies at the heart of modern quantum optics. The chapter begins by presenting formal ways of describing the main components of quantum optics experiments, namely, photodetectors and semi-reflecting mirrors. One can then understand homodyne detection, used to measure field quadrature components, even at optical frequencies for which no detector is fast enough to follow the oscillations of the field itself. Section 5.2 deals with the quantum vacuum where, in contrast to the classical vacuum, radiation has properties, in particular, fluctuations, with which one can associate physical effects. We then discuss in Section 5.3 some quantum radiation states in the simple case where a single mode l of the field is excited (non-vacuum). We introduce the idea of a quasiclassical state, or coherent state, used to make the link with classical optics. We shall also study other states, those with a definite number of photons, or squeezed states, which exhibit typically quantum properties, quite inconceivable in classical electromagnetism, and we shall show how these properties can be understood by reference to the Heisenberg relations, with an extremely useful graphical representation.
In this paper we formulate a new stochastic description of quantum mechanics in phase space. The theory of phase-space representations of quantum mechanics, initiated by Wigner, Groenewold, and Moyal and systematized recently by Agarwal and Wolf is essentially a single-time theory, in that it deals only with the quantum-mechanical joint distribution functions for position and momentum at a single instant of time. We develop a natural multitime extension of such a single-time theory. We consider a class of multitime phase-space distribution functions such that an arbitrary quantum multitime correlation function can be expressed as a phase-space average of the form encountered in classical stochastic theories. We study the nonclassical features of these multitime distribution functions and show that they may be considered as characterizing a generalized stochastic process in phase space. We demonstrate that the multitime distribution functions that correspond to Hamiltonian evolution of isolated quantum systems satisfy a certain condition that may be regarded as characterizing a generalized Markov process. We also investigate certain special features of the generalized stochastic processes that characterize the evolution of open systems.
Statistically interpretable axioms are formulated that define a quantum stochastic process (QSP) as a causally ordered operator field in an arbitrary space-time region T of an open quantum system under a sequential observation at a discrete space-time localization. It is shown that to every QSP described in the weak sense by a self-consistent system of causally ordered correlation kernels there corresponds a unique, up to unitary equivalence, minimal QSP in the strong sense. It is shown that the proposed QSP construction, which reduces in the case of the linearly ordered discrete T=Z to the construction of the inductive limit of Lindblad's canonical representations, corresponds to Kolmogorov's classical reconstruction if the order on T is ignored and leads to Lewis construction if one uses the system of all (not only causal) correlation kernels, regarding this system as lexicographically preordered on T. The approach presented encompasses both nonrelativistic and relativistic irreversible dynamics of open quantum systems and fields satisfying the conditions of local commutativity and semigroup covariance. Also given are necessary and sufficient conditions of dynamicity (or conditional Markovianity) and regularity, these leading to the properties of complete mixing (relaxation) and ergodicity of the QSP.