| Issue |
J. Eur. Opt. Soc.-Rapid Publ.
Volume 3, 2008
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 08014 | |
| Number of page(s) | 4 | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.2971/jeos.2008.08014 | |
| Published online | 04 April 2008 | |
Regular papers
Degree of polarization and quantum-mechanical purity
1
INAOE, Coordinación de Optica, Apdo. Postal 51 y 216, 72000 Puebla, Pue., Mexico
2
Centro de Investigaciones en Optica, A.C., Apartado Postal 1-948, 37000 León, Gto., Mexico
3
Department of Engineering Physics Helsinki University of Technology (TKK), P.O. Box 3500, FI-02015 TKK, Finland
4
Department of Physics and Mathematics, University of Joensuu, P.O. Box 111, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland
5
Department of Microelectronics and Applied Physics, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Electrum 229, SE-164 40 Kista, Sweden
Received:
1
February
2008
The purity parameter is used in quantum mechanics to discriminate pure states from mixed states. We employ this concept to define a degree of polarization for general, three-dimensional, classical random electric fields. Our approach leads to a result that is identical with a recent definition obtained by a decomposition of the polarization matrix in terms of the Gell-Mann matrices. We also give an expression for this degree of polarization based on the constituent two-dimensional subsystems.
Key words: Polarization / entropy / purity
© The Author(s) 2008. All rights reserved.
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