We introduce a new distance-based measure for the nonclassicality of the states of a bosonic field, which outperforms the existing such measures in several ways. We define for that purpose the operator ordering sensitivity of the state which evaluates the sensitivity to operator ordering of the Renyi entropy of its quasiprobabilities and which measures the oscillations in its Wigner function. Through a sharp control on the operator ordering sensitivity of classical states we obtain a precise geometric image of their location in the density matrix space allowing us to introduce a distance-based measure of nonclassicality. We analyze the link between this nonclassicality measure and a recently introduced quantum macroscopicity measure, showing how the two notions are distinct.
Two measures of nonclassicality, the entanglement potential and the negativity of the Wigner distribution function defined by the volume of its negative domains, are compared based on an investigation of the nonclassicality for Fock states and Schrödinger cat states in a decoherence process. Both the entanglement potential and the total negative probability are reduced in the linear loss process and the partial negative distribution of the Wigner function is wiped out for large losses while the entanglement potential is always positive. We give a bound condition and find that, though not yet mathematically proven in general, the upper bound of 50% is the maximum allowed loss for the survival of the negative distribution of the Wigner function.
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.
Identifying the classical-quantum divide and quantifying nonclassicality (quantumness) are fundamental issues in quantum exploration. By use of the Wigner-Yanase skew information [E. P. Wigner and M. M. Yanase, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 49, 910 (1963)], which is a version of quantum Fisher information with a well-established interpretation as quantum uncertainty, we introduce a simple and effective quantifier for nonclassicality of bosonic field states. This is achieved by simultaneously yet approximately measuring the canonical conjugate quadrature pair (equivalently, measuring the non-Hermitian annihilation operator in a generalized sense) from an information-theoretic perspective. This quantifier, apart from capturing the idea of nonclassicality as quantum uncertainty in a succinct way, is mathematically computable, physically intuitive, and possesses operational significance. We reveal its fundamental properties and illustrate its physical applications in quantifying nonclassicality of light. We compare it with various existent quantifiers for nonclassicality and illustrate its merits. A related quantifier for classicality, which is in some sense dual to nonclassicality, is also introduced. This pair of classicality and nonclassicality provides insight into the classical-quantum interplay.
Abstract In this paper, we investigate the nonclassicality and non-Gaussianity of a coherent superposed quantum state (CSQS) which is obtained by applying a coherent superposition of field annihilation (a) and creation ( a † ) operators, N ( t a + r a † ) to a classical coherent state | α ⟩ , where t and r are scalars with t 2 + r 2 = 1 . Such an operation, when applied on states having classical characters, introduces strong nonclassicality. We use different criteria to check the nonclassicality and non-Gaussianity of the considered quantum state. We first compute the Wigner function of CSQS. To study the nonclassicality of the considered state we further use (a) linear entropy (b) Wigner logarithmic negativity and (c) skew information based measure. Relative entropy based measure is considered to analyze the variation in non-Gaussianity of CSQS. Finally, the dynamics of the Wigner function evolving under the photon loss channel is addressed to probe the effect of noise on nonclassicality as well as non-Gaussianity of CSQS.
In quantum optics, nonclassicality in the sense of Glauber-Sudarshan is a valuable resource related to the quantum aspect of photons. A desirable and intuitive requirement for a consistent measure of nonclassicality is convexity: Classical mixing should not increase nonclassicality. We show that the recently introduced nonclassicality measure [Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 080402 (2019)] is not convex. This nonclassicality measure is defined via operator ordering sensitivity, which is an interesting and significant probe (witness) of nonclassicality without convexity but can be intrinsically connected to the convex Wigner-Yanase skew information [Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. United States 49, 910 (1963)] via the square root operation on quantum states. Motivated by the Wigner-Yanase skew information, we also propose a faithful measure of nonclassicality, although it cannot be readily computed, it is convex.