A way to define the phase distribution for a single-mode quantum field

Abstract

The idea that the phase of single-mode field may be correctly defined as a phase difference between the state considered and a highly excited coherent state treated as the reference phase state, although present in discussions about the quantum phase problem, have not been directly concretized and its consequences fully understood. In the present work we succeed in finding an effective mathematical procedure which corresponds exactly to this idea and so derive, using the results related to phase difference available in the literature, the phase distribution for a single-mode field. We discuss the obtained results.