Quantum-mechanical cumulant expansions and their application to phase-space and to phase distributions

Abstract

Starting from the characteristic function of an operator, we investigate cumulant expansions in quantum optics and apply them to two-dimensional distributions for the canonical variables of the phase space in the case of one degree of freedom (Wigner quasiprobability and its Fourier transform, uncertainty matrix) and to one-dimensional distributions (phase operator, time evolution operator to Hamiltonian). In the relations between cumulants and moments, we make emphasis on the central moments of an operator. It is shown that the determinant of the uncertainty matrix (modified uncertainty product) is invariant with respect to rotation and squeezing of the state in the phase space, whereas the uncertainty sum is only invariant with respect to rotations. We examine some problems for exponentials of the phase operator and show how mean values and variances are connected with the cumulants. The Hilbert–Schmidt distance of a state during time evolution to an initial state is discussed by cumulants.