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Extremal quantum states and their Majorana constellations

G. Björk, A. B. Klimov, P. de la Hoz, M. Grassl, G. Leuchs, and L. L. Sánchez-Soto
Phys. Rev. A 92, 031801(R) – Published 1 September 2015

Abstract

The characterization of quantum polarization of light requires knowledge of all the moments of the Stokes variables, which are appropriately encoded in the multipole expansion of the density matrix. We look into the cumulative distribution of those multipoles and work out the corresponding extremal pure states. We find that SU(2) coherent states are maximal to any order whereas the converse case of minimal states (which can be seen as the most quantum ones) is investigated for a diverse range of the number of photons. Taking advantage of the Majorana representation, we recast the problem as that of distributing a number of points uniformly over the surface of the Poincaré sphere.

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  • Received 26 March 2015
  • Revised 11 June 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.92.031801

©2015 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

G. Björk1, A. B. Klimov2, P. de la Hoz3, M. Grassl4,5, G. Leuchs4,5, and L. L. Sánchez-Soto3,4,5

  • 1Department of Applied Physics, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), AlbaNova, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
  • 2Departamento de Física, Universidad de Guadalajara, 44420 Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
  • 3Departamento de Óptica, Facultad de Física, Universidad Complutense, E-28040 Madrid, Spain
  • 4Max-Planck-Institut für die Physik des Lichts, Günther-Scharowsky-Straße 1, Bau 24, D-91058 Erlangen, Germany
  • 5Institut für Optik, Information und Photonik, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Staudtstraße 7/B2, D-91058 Erlangen, Germany

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Issue

Vol. 92, Iss. 3 — September 2015

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