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Nonclassical Properties of Coherent States

Quantum Physics 2009-11-10 v2

Abstract

It is demonstrated that a weak measurement of the squared quadrature observable may yield negative values for coherent states. This result cannot be reproduced by a classical theory where quadratures are stochastic cc-numbers. The real part of the weak value is a conditional moment of the Margenau-Hill distribution. The nonclassicality of coherent states can be associated with negative values of the Margenau-Hill distribution. A more general type of weak measurement is considered, where the pointer can be in an arbitrary state, pure or mixed.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0309025,
  title  = {Nonclassical Properties of Coherent States},
  author = {Lars M. Johansen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0309025},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

4 pages. Some arguments rewritten, reference added to quant-ph/0402050. Conclusion unchanged

R2 v1 2026-07-22T19:40:55.718Z