English

Towards a Faithful Quantumness Certification Functional for One-Dimensional Continuous-Variable Systems

Quantum Physics 2026-03-04 v3

Abstract

If the phase space-based Glauber-Sudarshan distribution, PρP_{\rho}, has negative values the quantum state,~ρ\rho, it describes is nonclassical. Due to PP's singular behaviour this simple criterion is impractical to use. Recent work [Bohmann and Agudelo, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 133601 (2020)] presented a general, sensitive, and noise-tolerant certification functional,~ξ[P]\xi[P], for the detection of non-classical behaviour of quantum states PρP_{\rho}. There, it was shown that when this functional takes on negative values somewhere in phase space,~ξ[P](x,p)<0\xi[P](x,p) < 0, this is \emph{sufficient} to certify the nonclassicality of a state. Here we give examples where this certification fails. We investigate states which are known to be nonclassical but the certification functions is non-negative, ξ(x,p)0\xi(x,p) \geq 0, everywhere in phase space. We generalize ξ\xi giving it an appealing form which allows for improved certification. This way we generate a more sensitive family of certification functions. Yet, also these fail for very weakly nonclassical states, the question how to faithfully certify quantumness remains an open question.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.23299,
  title  = {Towards a Faithful Quantumness Certification Functional for One-Dimensional Continuous-Variable Systems},
  author = {Ole Steuernagel and Ray-Kuang Lee},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.23299},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

6 pages, 2 Figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T08:44:01.944Z