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A quantum model of communication systems

M. Dayne Aldridge

Published Jun 1, 1968• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

The problem of including quantum effects within existing methods of communication system analysis is investigated.A mathematical model is postulated for describing narrow bandwidth systems.Utilizing the Glauber P representation, the model permits analysis of both real field detection (measurement of electric and magnetic field magnitudes) and photon detection.The resulting equation which describes photon detection is shown to be consistent with previous work which has been proven experimentally.Unique aspects of the postulated model are its ability to describe both random and deterministic modulation functions in conventional terms, and its ability to demonstrate the inapplicability of the "photon channel" model for describing present-day systems.An analysis of quantum effects at the transmitter shows that modulation of the radiated field must take place by one of two distinctly different processes.Wave modulation is defined as a process which conveys information in the amplitude and phase of the electromagnetic field.Photon modulation is defined as a process which conveys information in the exact number of photons per pulse of the transmitted field (i.e., the "photon channel" of Stern, Gordon, ani othfrs).A wave modulated signal is shown to describe present-day modulation schemes and, moreover, to yield random photon fluctuations.It is concluded a wave modulated signal is not capable of describing a photon modulated signal.In contrast, a photon modulated signal is shown to possess a completely random phase fluctuation thus demonstrating the inability of the "photon channel" to describe presently used wave modulation schemes.For wave modulation the Glauber P function is shown to be identical (with a change of variable) to the classical joint probability density of the quadrature components of a narrowband sinusoid used in conventional analysis.Equations are derived which "transform" classical probability distributions into distributions which include quantum effects.The "partitioning noise" studied by Hagfors and Bowen is found to constitute a source of noise only in the "photon channel."The "partitioning effect" is shown to merely preserve the Poisson character of photon counts in wave modulated fields and therefore does not introduce a noise in present-day systems.For a wave modulated system with real field detection it is shown that photon noise can be included in conventional analysis by adding to the normal input noise, a noise density of hf c /2 Watts/Hertz where h is Planck's constant and f is the system carrier frequency.Use of photon heterodyne detection requires the addition of an input noise density of hf c Watts/Hertz.The photon noise is exactly additive Gaussian for real field detection and approximately additive Gaussian for photon heterodyne detection.Detection by counting the received photons is shown to yield neither Gaussian nor Poissonian statistics.However, with an "ideal measurement process," when the effective received noise density n c is much less than hf c , the variance of the counts are found to approach that of a Poisson distribution.Conversely, when nc is much larger than hf c , the .variance approaches that derivable from a classical analysis.A channel capacity equation for a wave modulated system is found which is equal to those derived by Lachs and Jelsma.The equation is shown to give capacities less than that derived by Gordon.

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The problem of including quantum effects within existing methods of communication system analysis is investigated.A mathematical model is postulated for describing narrow bandwidth systems.Utilizing the Glauber P representation, the model permits analysis of both real field detection (measurement of electric and magnetic field magnitudes) and photon detection.The resulting equation which describes photon detection is shown to be consistent with previous work which has been proven experimentally.Unique aspects of the postulated model are its ability to describe both random and deterministic modulation functions in conventional terms, and its ability to demonstrate the inapplicability of the "photon channel" model for describing present-day systems.An analysis of quantum effects at the transmitter shows that modulation of the radiated field must take place by one of two distinctly different processes.Wave modulation is defined as a process which conveys information in the amplitude and phase of the electromagnetic field.Photon modulation is defined as a process which conveys information in the exact number of photons per pulse of the transmitted field (i.e., the "photon channel" of Stern, Gordon, ani othfrs).A wave modulated signal is shown to describe present-day modulation schemes and, moreover, to yield random photon fluctuations.It is concluded a wave modulated signal is not capable of describing a photon modulated signal.In contrast, a photon modulated signal is shown to possess a completely random phase fluctuation thus demonstrating the inability of the "photon channel" to describe presently used wave modulation schemes.For wave modulation the Glauber P function is shown to be identical (with a change of variable) to the classical joint probability density of the quadrature components of a narrowband sinusoid used in conventional analysis.Equations are derived which "transform" classical probability distributions into distributions which include quantum effects.The "partitioning noise" studied by Hagfors and Bowen is found to constitute a source of noise only in the "photon channel."The "partitioning effect" is shown to merely preserve the Poisson character of photon counts in wave modulated fields and therefore does not introduce a noise in present-day systems.For a wave modulated system with real field detection it is shown that photon noise can be included in conventional analysis by adding to the normal input noise, a noise density of hf c /2 Watts/Hertz where h is Planck's constant and f is the system carrier frequency.Use of photon heterodyne detection requires the addition of an input noise density of hf c Watts/Hertz.The photon noise is exactly additive Gaussian for real field detection and approximately additive Gaussian for photon heterodyne detection.Detection by counting the received photons is shown to yield neither Gaussian nor Poissonian statistics.However, with an "ideal measurement process," when the effective received noise density n c is much less than hf c , the variance of the counts are found to approach that of a Poisson distribution.Conversely, when nc is much larger than hf c , the .variance approaches that derivable from a classical analysis.A channel capacity equation for a wave modulated system is found which is equal to those derived by Lachs and Jelsma.The equation is shown to give capacities less than that derived by Gordon.
A simple one-dimensional model is taken to illustrate the quantum effects of a narrowband communication system. The system is quantized, and its dynamics are discussed in terms of the Heisenberg equations for field operators. The detection process of a coherent joint whose compatibility with quantum physics was justified elsewhere, is discussed. The detector, which is capable of measuring the quadrature-modulating components at Nyquist rate with minimum possible uncertainty allowed by quantum theory and which is most suitable for a continuous channel, is used to determine the channel capacity. It is shown that the noise of the channel, due to both thermal and quantum fluctuations, is additive and Gaussian. The classical concepts and expressions for the average mutual information and channel capacity are still valid, provided that the quantum noise of one quantum is included properly. The results obtained approach straightforwardly Shannon's in the classical limit.
In this analysis the quantum statistics of the received signal of a frequency modulated laser communication system are derived. In particular the detection statistics for heterodyne and electric field detection of the frequency modulated laser beam are determined. These detection statistics are used to define a measure of the communication system performance in terms of a signal to noise ratio. The development of the quantum electromagnetic field in terms of the photon annihilation eigenstates is the basis for determining these statistics. The derivation used accounts for fluctuations in the carrier, fluctuations due to background radiation introduced after modulation, fluctuations due to the local laser oscillator, and zero point field fluctuations. The results of this analysis indicate the probability distribution for the optical heterodyne detection is not a familiar one of classical communication theory, but it is of the form of probability distribution that satisfies experimentally measured photocount statistics of unmodulated laser radiation. The probability distribution for the electric field intensity detection of the frequency modulated laser beam is the familiar Gaussian distribution. (Author)
We consider a communication system consisting of an information source of electromagnetic radiation. It is assumed that the information source radiates an electromagnetic signal with an average power S, and the signal propagated through the electromagnetic channel is assumed to be perturbed by additive thermal noise at temperature T. For simplicity, we assume that the electromagnetic signal is one-dimensional (i.e., the photon fluctuation is restricted to only one polarized state), in which the propagation occurs in the same direction of the wave vectors. It is emphasized that the corresponding occupation number of the quantum levels can be fully described. Obviously, these occupation quantum levels correspond to the microsignal structure of the information source. It is therefore assumed that these occupation numbers can be uniquely determined for those representing an input signal ensemble. We further assume that an ideal receiver (an ideal photon counter) is used at the output end of the channel. That is, the receiver is able to detect the specified frequencies of the electromagnetic signal. It is also emphasized that in practice the interaction of the electromagnetic signal and the detector are strictly statistical, that is, a certain amount of information loss is expected at the output end of the receiver. The idealized model of the receiver we have proposed mainly simplifies the method by which the quantum effect on the communication channel can be easily calculated.
The process of attenuation of electromagnetic energy when transmitted over some communication channel is stochastic in nature. Hence one can expect that, since equivocation is imposed in the transmission, in addition to reduction of average signal power, there will be a consequent degradation in channel capacity. We have attempted to calculate the effect of this phenomenon on an otherwise noiseless photon channel and when the source itself is assumed to have no undesired fluctuations. In order to do so, we have employed a straightforward variational technique and introduced the partition function method of statistical mechanics to obtain an expression for channel capacity. Using approximate methods, we find that the maximum information transfer is achieved when the probability of receiving exactlykphotons goes down, asymptotically with largek, ase^{-ck}/ \sqrt{k}, wherecis a positive constant. For very large received average energyU(in photon number), the channel capacity behaves approximately asC = \frac{1}{2} \ln U, one-half the capacity of an ideal noiseless photon channel (given by Gordon's formula for the capacity of an electromagnetic wave). For very small received average energy, we find that the (optimum) received distribution is very nearly Bose-Einstein, and the channel capacity is not degraded below its ideal value. The results are applicable to an idealized laser oscillator and also to photoelectric detection. That is, both devices by themselves may be regarded as "channels" for which the input may be modulated as desired and the output is stochastically dependent on the input.
In this paper we are interested to model quantum signal by statistical signal processing methods. The Gaussian distribution has been considered for the input quantum signal as Gaussian state have been proven to a type of important robust state and most of the important experiments of quantum information are done with Gaussian light. Along with that a joint noise model has been invoked, and followed by a received signal model has been formulated by using convolution of transmitted signal and joint quantum noise to realized theoretical achievable capacity of the single quantum link. In joint quantum noise model we consider the quantum Poisson noise with classical Gaussian noise. We compare the capacity of the quantum channel with respect to SNR to detect its overall tendency. In this paper we use the channel equation in terms of random variable to investigate the quantum signals and noise model statistically. These methods are proposed to develop Quantum statistical signal processing and the idea comes from the statistical signal processing.
Introduction In previous chapters we studied wave propagation in fiber OPAs from a classical standpoint, i.e. starting from Maxwell's equations. That approach provides only a partial view of the rich nature of the electromagnetic field, namely its wave nature. However, a complete description of the electromagnetic field requires quantum mechanics. This quantum description of the electromagnetic field (called quantum electrodynamics, or QED) predicts fluctuations in measurable quantities due to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and sets ultimate limits on the performance of devices such as optical amplifiers. A remarkable result of this theory is that the statistics and thus the noise performance of a system are affected by the quantum statistics of the source and by the physical measurement that is made. Thus a different analysis is needed depending on whether homodyne, heterodyne, or direct detection (where the field simply impinges on a photodiode) is used. Direct detection reveals the particle nature of the electromagnetic field. More specifically, energy arrives in discrete units, called photons, each of which may create an electron–hole pair in a semiconductor photodetector. In particular, the number of photons in an optical pulse can be thought of as a random variable having a mean and a variance. By deriving the mean and variance of the photocurrent that would be present if one performed direct detection of ideal laser light at the input of an optical amplifier and then a similar measurement at its exit, one can quantify the degradation of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) caused by the amplifier.