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arXiv:quant-ph/0501050

Symmetries of the Poincare sphere and decoherence matrices

Sibel Başkal, Y. S. Kim

Published Jan 11, 2005• 1 citation
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The Stokes parameters form a Minkowskian four-vector under various optical transformations. As a consequence, the resulting two-by-two density matrix constitutes a representation of the Lorentz group. The associated Poincare sphere is a geometric representation of the Lorentz group. Since the Lorentz group preserves the determinant of the density matrix, it cannot accommodate the decoherence process through the decaying off-diagonal elements of the density matrix, which yields to an incerese in the value of the determinant. It is noted that the O(3,2) deSitter group contains two Lorentz subgroups. The change in the determinant in one Lorentz group can be compensated by the other. It is thus possible to describe the decoherence process as a symmetry transformation in the O(3,2) space. It is shown also that these two coupled Lorentz groups can serve as a concrete example of Feynman's rest of the universe.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.quant-ph/0501050

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The Stokes parameters form a Minkowskian four-vector under various optical transformations. As a consequence, the resulting two-by-two density matrix constitutes a representation of the Lorentz group. The associated Poincare sphere is a geometric representation of the Lorentz group. Since the Lorentz group preserves the determinant of the density matrix, it cannot accommodate the decoherence process through the decaying off-diagonal elements of the density matrix, which yields to an incerese in the value of the determinant. It is noted that the O(3,2) deSitter group contains two Lorentz subgroups. The change in the determinant in one Lorentz group can be compensated by the other. It is thus possible to describe the decoherence process as a symmetry transformation in the O(3,2) space. It is shown also that these two coupled Lorentz groups can serve as a concrete example of Feynman's rest of the universe.
Stokes parameters form a Minkowskian 4-vector under various optical transformations. As a consequence, the resulting two-by-two density matrix constitutes a representation of the Lorentz group. The associated Poincaré sphere is a geometric representation of the Lorentz group. Since the Lorentz group preserves the determinant of the density matrix, it cannot accommodate the decoherence process through the decaying off-diagonal elements of the density matrix, which yields to an increase in the value of the determinant. It is noted that the O (3, 2) de Sitter group contains two Lorentz subgroups. The change in the determinant in one Lorentz group can be compensated by the other. It is thus possible to describe the decoherence process as a symmetry transformation in the O (3, 2) space. It is shown also that these two coupled Lorentz groups can serve as a concrete example of Feynman's rest of the universe.
It is shown that the Lorentz group is the natural language for two-beam interferometers if there are no decoherence effects. This aspect of the interferometer can be translated into six-parameter representations of the Lorentz group, as in the case of polarization optics where there are two orthogonal components of one light beam. It is shown that there are groups of transformations which leave the coherency or density matrix invariant, and this symmetry property is formulated within the framework of Wigner's little groups. An additional mathematical apparatus is needed for the transition from a pure state to an impure state. Decoherence matrices are constructed for this process, and their properties are studied in detail. Experimental tests of this symmetry property are possible.
It is known that two coupled harmonic oscillators can support the symmetry group as rich as O(3,3) which corresponds to the Lorentz group applicable to three space-like and three time-like coordinates. This group contains many subgroups, including O(3), O(3,2), O(2,1) which are already familiar to us. In this report, we discuss the symmetry of O(1,1) which plays pivotal roles in quantum optics and particle physics. For this one-parameter group, a full-fledged group theory is not necessary, and we can start the discussion from the Hamiltonian of the coupled oscillator system. It is shown first that, from the group theoretical point of view, the squeeze state of light is a representation of this O(1,1) group. It is then shown that the same mathematical device supports three seemingly different ideas of Feynman, namely the parton model, the relativistic quark model for hadrons, and the ``rest of the universe'' in connection with the density matrix. If these three theories are combined, they produce a covariant picture of Feynman's parton model with a built-in decoherence mechanism.
This book explains the Lorentz mathematical group in a language familiar to physicists. While the three-dimensional rotation group is one of the standard mathematical tools in physics, the Lorentz group of the four-dimensional Minkowski space is still very strange to most present-day physicists. It plays an essential role in understanding particles moving at close to light speed and is becoming the essential language for quantum optics, classical optics, and information science. The book is based on papers and books published by the authors on the representations of the Lorentz group based on harmonic oscillators and their applications to high-energy physics and to Wigner functions applicable to quantum optics. It also covers the two-by-two representations of the Lorentz group applicable to ray optics, including cavity, multilayer and lens optics, as well as representations of the Lorentz group applicable to Stokes parameters and the Poincare sphere on polarization optics.
This paper starts with the transition from classical physics to quantum mechanics which was greatly aided by the concept of phase space. The role of canonical transformations in quantum mechanics is addressed. The Wigner phase-space distribution function is then defined which arises from the formulation of the density matrix, followed by the harmonic oscillator in phase space. Coherent and one- and two-mode squeezed states of light as well as the squeezed vacuum are discussed in the phase-space picture. Attention is also drawn to the fact that squeezed states naturally generate entanglement between the two-modes. Coupled harmonic oscillators are also elucidated in connection with the Wigner phase space. It will be noted that the phase-space picture of quantum mechanics has become an important scientific language for the rapidly expanding field of quantum optics. Here, we mainly focus on the simplest form of the Wigner function, which finds application in many branches of quantum mechanics. We make use of several symmetry groups such as Lorentz groups, the symplectic group in two and four dimensions, and the Euclidean group. The decoherence problem of an optical field is examined through a reformulation of the Poincaré sphere as a further illustration of the density matrix.