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Coherent Phenomena

Modes and Noise Propagation in Phase Space

J. Ben-Benjamin, Leon W. Cohen

Published Jan 24, 2015• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract We show that phase space methods developed for quantum mechanics, such as the Wigner distribution, can be effectively used to study the evolution of nonstationary noise in dispersive media. We formulate the issue in terms of modes and show how modes evolve and how they are effected by sources.We show that each mode satisfies a Schrödinger type equation where the “Hamiltonian” may not be Hermitian. The Hamiltonian operator corresponds to dispersion relationwhere thewavenumber is replaced by the wavenumber operator. A complex dispersion relation corresponds to a non Hermitian operator and indicates that we have attenuation. A number of examples are given.

DOI
10.1515/coph-2015-0003

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Abstract We show that phase space methods developed for quantum mechanics, such as the Wigner distribution, can be effectively used to study the evolution of nonstationary noise in dispersive media. We formulate the issue in terms of modes and show how modes evolve and how they are effected by sources.We show that each mode satisfies a Schrödinger type equation where the “Hamiltonian” may not be Hermitian. The Hamiltonian operator corresponds to dispersion relationwhere thewavenumber is replaced by the wavenumber operator. A complex dispersion relation corresponds to a non Hermitian operator and indicates that we have attenuation. A number of examples are given.
We apply quasi-distribution methods developed for quantum mechanics to the propagation of pulses in dispersive media with attenuation. We show that a Schrödinger type equation follows for propagation of the pulse for each mode. One then transforms the equation to obtain an equation of evolution in the phase space of position and wavenumber. In this paper we emphasize windowed wave functions and their corresponding phase space quasi-distributions. We obtain the time evolution equation, discuss possible approximations, and compare to the Wigner distribution approximation previously derived by Loughlin and Cohen by different methods.
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We formulate a noise reverberation model that involves propagation effects. This is in contrast to the standard model where the amplitude and phase are taken to be random variables and propagation effects are not taken into account. The noise obtained is nonstationary and we show that an effective way to formulate the noise reverberation model is in phase space wherein the phase space function is taken to be the Wigner spectrum. The Wigner spectrum is the ensemble average of the Wigner distribution.
Abstract We investigate the corrections to the optical geometry approximation for waves traveling in non homogeneous media. We model the wave propagation in dispersive and non dispersive materials in terms of the phase space Wigner–Weyl formalism. The ray tracing optical geometry limit is introduced by numerical tests. We solve the exact Wigner propagation equation for 1D non dispersive materials. We discuss the connection of the Wigner–Weyl description of waves with the particle-wave duality phenomenon in quantum mechanics.
In this paper the equations for quantum optical pulse propagation in nonlinear and dispersive single-mode fibers are presented in terms of two phase-space formulations based on the positive-P and the Wigner distributions. Included are the effects due to the coupling of the electromagnetic modes to the vibrational states of a vitreous silica fiber. By making use of the well-known equivalence of Fokker-Planck and Ito stochastic equations, we demonstrate two alternative methods for formulating the equations of motion as coupled stochastic c-number equations for the propagating field. The first method involves a representation of the density operator in terms of the positive P distribution function. This leads to exact stochastic equations of motion. The second method makes use of the Wigner distribution function. This method, which requires truncation of third-order derivative terms in the corresponding Fokker-Planck equation, is necessarily approximate. However, we discuss certain advantages to the Wigner approach that have made it the preferable method for exploratory work.