English

Discrete Q- and P-symbols for spin s

Quantum Physics 2015-06-26 v1

Abstract

Non-orthogonal bases of projectors on coherent states are introduced to expand hermitean operators acting on the Hilbert space of a spin s. It is shown that the expectation values of a hermitean operator A in a family of (2s+1)(2s+1) spin-coherent states determine the operator unambiguously. In other words, knowing the Q-symbol of A at (2s+1)(2s+1) points on the unit sphere is already sufficient in order to recover the operator. This provides a straightforward method to reconstruct the mixed state of a spin since its density matrix is explicitly parametrized in terms of expectation values. Furthermore, a discrete P-symbol emerges naturally which is related to a basis dual to the original one.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.quant-ph/9906099,
  title  = {Discrete Q- and P-symbols for spin s},
  author = {Jean-Pierre Amiet and Stefan Weigert},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/9906099},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

6 pages, Latex2e

R2 v1 2026-07-22T20:06:32.362Z