English

Quantum versus classical polarization states: when multipoles count

Quantum Physics 2013-06-04 v1

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 QQ function to formulate a whole hierarchy of measures that properly assess higher-order polarization correlations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1306.0351,
  title  = {Quantum versus classical polarization states: when multipoles count},
  author = {L. L. Sanchez-Soto and A. B. Klimov and P. de la Hoz and G. Leuchs},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1306.0351},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

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

R2 v1 2026-06-22T00:26:53.668Z