Quantum versus classical polarization states: when multipoles count

Abstract

We advocate for a simple multipole expansion of the polarization density matrix. The resulting multipoles are used to construct bona fide quasiprobability distributions that appear as a sum of successive moments of the Stokes variables; the first one corresponding to the classical picture on the Poincare sphere. We employ the particular case of the $Q$ function to formulate a whole hierarchy of measures that properly assess higher-order polarization correlations.

8 pages, 2 color figures. Published in Journal of Physics B, special issue on 20th anniversary of quantum state engineering

References in corpus (4)

• Quantum degrees of polarization
• Distance-based degrees of polarization for a quantum field
• Quantum reconstruction of an intense polarization squeezed optical state
• Assessing the Polarization of a Quantum Field from Stokes Fluctuation

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Spin squeezing in an ensemble of quadrupolar nuclei NMR system
• Extremal quantum states and their Majorana constellations
• Tensor Representation of Spin States
• Multiqubit symmetric states with maximally mixed one-qubit reductions
• Multipolar hierarchy of efficient quantum polarization measures
• Quantumness of spin-1 states
• Unpolarized states and hidden polarization
• Parsing Squeezed Light into Polarization Manifolds
• Nonlocality enhanced precision in quantum polarimetry via entangled photons
• Quantum Polarimetry
• Evidence-based certification of quantum dimensions
• Orthonormal bases of extreme quantumness
• Quantum Estimation of the Stokes Vector Rotation for a General Polarimetric Transformation
• Modification of polarization through de-Gaussification
• Majorization of quantum polarization distributions