Quantum uncertainty of optical coherence
Abstract
Light is known to exhibit quantum uncertainty in terms of its amplitude, phase, and polarization. However, quantum uncertainty related to coherence, which is also a fundamental physical property of light, has not been considered to date. Here, we formulate and explore the concept of quantum optical coherence uncertainty. We focus on the first-order coherence of the simplest possible light field, a purely monochromatic plane wave, which is classically completely stable. Starting from a scalar treatment, we show that the field displays zero coherence uncertainty only for a number state. We then proceed to the vectorial regime and establish that any state leads to coherence fluctuations, governed by a set of uncertainty relations depending on the polarization state and space-time points. Our work thus provides fundamental insights into the quantum character of optical coherence, with potential benefits in applications using highly sensitive interferometric and polarimetric techniques.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2411.13106,
title = {Quantum uncertainty of optical coherence},
author = {Martti Hanhisalo and Mohammad Sajjad Mirmoosa and Tero Setälä and Łukasz Rudnicki and Andreas Norrman},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.13106},
year = {2026}
}