Majorization and Measures of Classical Polarization in Three Dimensions

Abstract

There has been much discussion in the literature about rival measures of classical polarization in three dimensions. We gather and compare the various proposed measures of polarization, creating a geometric representation of the polarization state space in the process. We use majorization, previously used in quantum information, as a criterion to establish a partial ordering on the polarization state space. Using this criterion and other considerations, the most useful polarization measure in three dimensions is found to be one dependent on the Bloch vector decomposition of the polarization matrix.

8 pages

References in corpus (2)

• Polarimetric characterization of light and media
• A three-dimensional degree of polarization based on Rayleigh scattering

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Entangled Bloch Spheres: Bloch Matrix and Two Qubit State Space
• Interpretation of the coherency matrix for three-dimensional polarization states
• Geometric descriptions for the polarization for nonparaxial optical fields: a tutorial
• Classical distinguishability as an operational measure of polarization
• Spectral Bounds on Entropy and Ergotropy via Statistical Effective Temperature in Classical Polarization and Quantum Thermal States
• Coherence for vectorial waves and majorization
• Polarization monotones of two-dimensional and three-dimensional random electromagnetic fields