Husimi Q-function Research Articles

Quantum dynamics of a driven parametric oscillator in a Kerr medium

In this paper, we first analyze a parametric oscillator with both mass and frequency time-dependent. We show that the evolution operator can be obtained from the evolution operator of another parametric oscillator with a constant mass and time-dependent frequency followed by a time transformation trightarrow int _0^t dt',1/m(t'). Then we proceed by investigating the quantum dynamics of a parametric oscillator with unit mass and time-dependent frequency in a Kerr medium under the influence of a time-dependent force along the motion of the oscillator. The quantum dynamics of the time-dependent oscillator is analyzed from both analytical and numerical points of view in two main regimes: (i) small Kerr parameter chi , and (ii) small confinement parameter k. In the following, to investigate the characteristics and statistical properties of the generated states, we calculate the autocorrelation function, the Mandel Q parameter, and the Husimi Q-function.

Anomalous energy exchanges and Wigner-function negativities in a single-qubit gate

Anomalous weak values and the Wigner function's negativity are well-known witnesses of quantum contextuality. We show that these effects occur when analyzing the energetics of a single-qubit gate generated by a resonant coherent field traveling in a waveguide. The buildup of correlations between the qubit and the field is responsible for bounds on the gate fidelity, but also for a nontrivial energy balance recently observed in a superconducting setup. In the experimental scheme, the field is continuously monitored through heterodyne detection and then postselected over the outcomes of a final qubit's measurement. The postselected data can be interpreted as the field's weak values and can show anomalous values in the variation of the field's energy. We model the joint system dynamics with a collision model, gaining access to the qubit-field entangled state at any time. We find an analytical expression of the quasiprobability distribution of the postselected heterodyne signal, i.e., the conditional Husimi-Q function. The latter grants access to all the field's weak values: we use it to obtain that of the field's energy change and display its anomalous behavior. Finally, we derive the field's conditional Wigner function and show that anomalous weak values and Wigner function negativities arise for the same values of the gate's angle.

Witnessing non-Markovianity by quantum quasi-probability distributions

We employ frames consisting of rank-one projectors (i.e. pure quantum states) and their induced informationally complete quantum measurements to represent generally mixed quantum states by quasi-probability distributions. In the case of discrete frames on finite dimensional systems this results in a vector like representation by quasi-probability vectors, while for the continuous frame of coherent states in continuous variable (CV) systems the approach directly leads to the celebrated representation by Glauber–Sudarshan P-functions and Husimi Q-functions. We explain that the Kolmogorov distances between these quasi-probability distributions lead to upper and lower bounds of the trace distance which measures the distinguishability of quantum states. We apply these results to the dynamics of open quantum systems and construct a non-Markovianity witness based on the Kolmogorov distance of the P- and Q-functions. By means of several examples we discuss the performance of this witness and demonstrate that it is useful in the regime of high entropy states for which a direct evaluation of the trace distance is typically very demanding. For Gaussian dynamics in CV systems we even find a suitable non-Markovianity measure based on the Kolmogorov distance between the P-functions which can alternatively be used as a witness for non-Gaussianity.

Husimi Q-Functions Attached to Hyperbolic Landau Levels

We are concerned with a phase-space probability distribution which is known as Husimi $Q$-function of a density operator with respect to a set of coherent states $\vert\widetilde{\kappa}_{z,B,R,m}\rangle$ attached to an $m$th hyperbolic Landau level and labeled by points $z$ of an open disk of radius $R$, where $B>0$ is proportional to a magnetic field strength. For a density operator representing a projector on a Fock state $\left\vert j\right\rangle$ we obtain the $Q_{j}$ distribution and discuss some of its basic properties such as its characteristic function and its main statistical parameters. We achieve the same program for the thermal density operator (mixed states) of the isotonic oscillator for which we establish a lower bound for the associated thermodynamical potential. We recover most of the results of the Euclidean setting (flat case) as the parameter $R$ goes to infinity by making appeal to asymptotic formulas involving orthogonal polynomials and special functions. As a tool, we establish a summation formula for the special Kamp\'{e} de F\'{e}riet function $\digamma _{2:0:0}^{1:2:2}$.

Quantum coherence, correlations and nonclassical states in the two-qubit Rabi model with parametric oscillator

Quantum coherence and quantum correlations are studied in the strongly interacting system composed of two qubits and an oscillator with the presence of a parametric medium. To analytically solve the system, we employ the adiabatic approximation approach. It assumes each qubit’s characteristic frequency is substantially lower than the oscillator frequency. To validate our approximation, a good agreement between the calculated energy spectrum of the Hamiltonian with its numerical result is presented. The time evolution of the reduced density matrices of the two-qubit and the oscillator subsystems are computed from the tripartite initial state. Starting with a factorized two-qubit initial state, the quasi-periodicity in the revival and collapse phenomenon that occurs in the two-qubit population inversion is studied. Based on the measure of relative entropy of coherence, we investigate the quantum coherence and its explicit dependence on the parametric term both for the two-qubit and the individual qubit subsystems by adopting different choices of the initial states. Similarly, the existence of quantum correlations is demonstrated by studying the geometric discord and concurrence. Besides, by numerically minimizing the Hilbert–Schmidt distance, the dynamically produced near maximally entangled states are reconstructed. The reconstructed states are observed to be nearly pure generalized Bell states. Furthermore, utilizing the oscillator density matrix, the quadrature variance and phase-space distribution of the associated Husimi Q-function are computed in the minimum entropy regime and conclude that the obtained nearly pure evolved state is a squeezed coherent state.

Squeezing in the quantum Rabi model with parametric nonlinearity

The squeezing effect arising in the interacting qubit-oscillator system is studied with the presence of a parametric oscillator in the Rabi model. To solve the system, we employ the generalized rotating wave approximation which works well in the wide range of coupling strength as well as detuning. The analytically derived approximate energy spectrum portrays good agreement with the numerically determined spectrum of the Hamiltonian. For the initial state of the bipartite system, the dynamical evolution of the reduced density matrix corresponding to the oscillator is obtained by partial tracing over the qubit degree of freedom. The oscillator’s reduced density matrix yields the nonnegative phase space quasi-probability distribution known as Husimi Q-function which is utilized to compute the quadrature variance. It is noticed that the squeezing produced in the oscillator sector gets reduced with increasing coupling strength. We demonstrate the role of the parametric term to obtain adequate squeezing in the strong coupling regime. We also study the revival–collapse phenomenon and the generation of squeezed coherent state.

Intensity-dependent and multi-photon Hamiltonian of two two-level atoms and two-mode field in a Kerr medium solved by virtue of supersymmetric unitary transformation

We consider a generalized multi-photon interaction of two collectively two-level atoms with two-mode of electromagnetic field in the presence of Kerr medium and intensity-dependent coupling. We show that this atomic system possesses supersymmetric structure. We solved this system by virtue of supersymmetric unitary transformation. The supersymmetric generators of this atomic system are constructed. The diagonalization of the corresponding Hamiltonian is performed by introducing a supersymmetric unitary transformation. Accordingly, the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the Hamiltonian of the atomic system are obtained. The time evolution of the atom–field wave functions is derived in an exact form for two cases of the initial states of the atoms and the field modes. Some quantum effects such as the second-order correlation function, cross-correlation, purity and Husimi Q-function are investigated. The effects of the Kerr medium, detuning parameter, intensity-dependent coupling and multi-photon transition on the evolution of these quantum effects are examined. We conclude that the supersymmetric unitary transformation method is very simple and can be applied to a variety of atomic systems which possess a supersymmetric structure.

London-modified coherent states: statistical properties and interaction with a two-level atom

In this paper, we discuss the statistical properties of London-modified coherent states that were introduced in order to build up a resolution of the identity for London coherent states. The resolution to the identity is realized by the application of an operator to the London cohrent states. Next we find the Mandel-Q parameter that shows that there exist sub-Poissonian behaviour for a large interval of amplitudes, look at their behaviour in phase space through the Husimi-Q function and study their interaction with a two-level atom. We show that their oscillating photon distributions are responsible for the ringing revival behaviour shown by the atomic inversion.

Spontaneous symmetry breaking and Husimi Q-functions in extended Dicke model

We study the emergence of a parity breaking coherent photonic state of a photon mode coupled to finite array of two-level systems, represented by pseudospins 1/2. The pseudospin-photon interaction is realised via a shift of the photonic oscillator equilibrium position by an amount linear in Cartesian component of the total pseudospin. We demonstrate analytically, that the instability is manifested in an upturn from concave to convex of the ground state energy dependence on the total pseudospin component coupled to the photons. The perturbation, sufficient for parity breaking, tends to zero in the ultrastrong limit of light–matter coupling. We present phase diagram of finite pseudospin-photon system, that demonstrates this feature. Evolution of Husimi Q-functions of the pseudospin and photon subsystems, and of the pseudospin entropy, along different trajectories across the phase diagram is presented.

Wehrl entropy production rate across a dynamical quantum phase transition

This paper proposes the Husimi-Q function based entropy as a suitable quantity to describe the thermodynamic properties of dynamical phase transitions, and establishes a relation between dynamical criticality and entropy production.

Quantum Extropy and Statistical Properties of the Radiation Field for Photonic Binomial and Even Binomial Distributions

We present quantum formula for extropy based on the Husimi Q-function and the atomic Husimi Q-function. The quantum extropy is used to detect the entanglement or nonlocal correlations of the system consisted of a single qubit and the radiation field. We provide explicit forms of the binomial and even binomial distributions. We compare the temporal behavior of quantum extropy within the atomic and field bases with the tomographic entropy, which is a measure for quantifying nonlocal correlations between the field and a single qubit. The photon statistics of the field can also be quantified by the evolution of the Mandel parameter, if the field initially follows the binomial and even binomial distributions. We use the total density matrix to compute and analyze the time evolution of the initial photonic binomial probability distribution that governs the behavior of the atom–photon entanglement. In this context, we investigate the links among the temporal behavior of the atomic quantum extropy, tomographic entropy, and statistical properties of the field. The quantum extropy is a useful indicator of the qubit–field entanglement, whereas the quantum extropy of the field basis is a good indicator of the dynamical behavior of the atom–field system.

Engineering first-order quantum phase transitions for weak signal detection

The quantum critical detector (QCD), recently introduced for weak signal amplification [L.-P. Yang and Z. Jacob, Opt. Express 27, 10482 (2019)], functions by exploiting high sensitivity near the phase transition point of first-order quantum phase transitions (QPTs). We contrast the behavior of the first-order and the second-order quantum phase transitions in the detector. We find that the giant sensitivity, which can be utilized for quantum amplification, only exists in the first-order QPTs. We define two new magnetic order parameters to quantitatively characterize the first-order QPT of the interacting spins in the detector. We also introduce the Husimi Q-functions as a powerful tool to show the fundamental change in the ground-state wave function of the detector during the QPTs, especially the intrinsic dynamical change within the detector during a quantum critical amplification. We explicitly show the high figures of merit of the QCD via the quantum gain and the signal-to-quantum noise ratio. Specifically, we predict the existence of a universal first-order QPT in the interacting-spin system resulting from two competing ferromagnetic orders. Our results motivate new designs of weak signal detectors by engineering first-order QPTs, which are of fundamental significance in the search for new particles, quantum metrology, and information science.

Quantum statistical properties of multiphoton hypergeometric coherent states and the discrete circle representation

We review the definition of hypergeometric coherent states, discussing some representative examples. Then, we study mathematical and statistical properties of hypergeometric Schrödinger cat states, defined as orthonormalized eigenstates of kth powers of nonlinear f-oscillator annihilation operators, with f of the hypergeometric type. These “k-hypercats” can be written as an equally weighted superposition of hypergeometric coherent states ∣zl⟩, l = 0, 1, …, k − 1, with zl = ze2πil/k a kth root of zk, and they interpolate between number and coherent states. This fact motivates a continuous circle representation for high k. We also extend our study to truncated hypergeometric functions (finite dimensional Hilbert spaces), and a discrete exact circle representation is provided. We also show how to generate k-hypercats by amplitude dispersion in a Kerr medium and analyze their generalized Husimi Q-function in the super- and sub-Poissonian cases at different fractions of the revival time.

Unnormalized Tomograms and Quasidistributions of Quantum States

We consider tomograms and quasidistributions, such as the Wigner functions, the Glauber–Sudarshan P-functions, and the Husimi Q-functions, that violate the standard normalization condition for probability distribution functions. We introduce special conditions for theWigner function to determine the tomogram with the Radon transform and study three different examples of states like the de Broglie plane wave, the Moshinsky shutter problem, and the stationary state of a charged particle in a uniform constant electric field. We show that their tomograms and quasidistribution functions expressed in terms of the Dirac delta function, the Airy function, and Fresnel integrals violate the standard normalization condition and the density matrix of the state therefore cannot always be reconstructed. We propose a method that allows circumventing this problem using a special tomogram in the limit form.

Orthogonalization of coherent state and generation of continuous-variable qubit state via a coherent superposition of photon addition and subtraction

Based on the coherent state (S1) and the operator [Formula: see text], we induce other three quantum states (here we abbreviate them as S2, S3 and S4). S2 is obtained by operating the operator on S1 directly. S3 is an orthogonal state of S1 constructed from the orthogonalizer relevant with that operator. S4 is a continuous-variable (CV) qubit state superposed from S1 and S3. We study and compare the mathematical and physical properties of such four quantum states. We demonstrate some statistical properties for S1–S4, including the mean photon number (MPN), anti-bunching effect, quadrate squeezing, photon number distribution, Husimi Q-function and Wigner function. The numerical results show some interesting non-classical characters for such states. It is worthy to note that the photon-added coherent state introduced by Agarwal and Tara is only a special case of our considered states.

Spin-phase-space-entropy production

Quantifying the degree of irreversibility of an open system dynamics represents a problem of both fundamental and applied relevance. Even though a well-known framework exists for thermal baths, the results give diverging results in the limit of zero temperature and are also not readily extended to nonequilibrium reservoirs, such as dephasing baths. Aimed at filling this gap, in this paper we introduce a phase-space-entropy production framework for quantifying the irreversibility of spin systems undergoing Lindblad dynamics. The theory is based on the spin Husimi-Q function and its corresponding phase-space entropy, known as Wehrl entropy. Unlike the von Neumann entropy production rate, we show that in our framework, the Wehrl entropy roduction rate remains valid at any temperature and is also readily extended to arbitrary nonequilibrium baths. As an application, we discuss the irreversibility associated with the interaction of a two-level system with a single-photon pulse, a problem which cannot be treated using the conventional approach.

The Dynamics of a Five-level (Double Λ)-type Atom Interacting with Two-mode Field in a Cross Kerr-like Medium

In this paper, we propose a new transition scheme (Double Λ) for the interaction between a five-level atom and an electromagnetic field and study its dynamics in the presence of a cross Kerr-like medium in the exact-resonance case. The wave function is derived when the atom is initially prepared in its upper most state, and the field is initially prepared in the coherent state. We studied the atomic population inversion, the coherence degree by studying the second-order correlation function, Cauchy-Schwartz inequality (CSI) and the relation with P-function. Finally, we investigate the effect of Kerr-like medium on the evolution of Husimi Q-function of the considered system.

A moving three-level Λ-type atom in a dissipative cavity

In this paper, we consider a three-level Λ-type atom interacting with a two-mode of electromagnetic cavity field surrounded by a nonlinear Kerr-like medium, the atom and the field are suffering decay rates (i.e. the cavity is not ideal) when the multi-photon processes is considered. Also, the atom and the field are assumed to be coupled with a modulated time-dependent coupling parameter under the rotating wave approximation. The wave function and the probability amplitudes are obtained, when the atom initially prepared in the superposition states and the field initially in the coherent states, by solving the time-dependent Schrodinger equation by taking a proper approximation to the system of differential equations. An analytical expression of the atomic reduced density operator is given. We studied the degree of entanglement, between the field and atom, measure (DEM) via the concurrence, Shannon information entropy, momentum increment and diffusion, and finally we investigated the effects of decay rates and the time-dependent parameters on Husimi Q-function.

Effect of Higher-Order Nonlinearities on Amplification and Squeezing in Josephson Parametric Amplifiers

Single-mode Josephson junction-based parametric amplifiers are often modeled as perfect amplifiers and squeezers. We show that, in practice, the gain, quantum efficiency, and output field squeezing of these devices are limited by usually neglected higher-order corrections to the idealized model. To arrive at this result, we derive the leading corrections to the lumped-element Josephson parametric amplifier of three common pumping schemes: monochromatic current pump, bichromatic current pump, and monochromatic flux pump. We show that the leading correction for the last two schemes is a single Kerr-type quartic term, while the first scheme contains additional cubic terms. In all cases, we find that the corrections are detrimental to squeezing. In addition, we show that the Kerr correction leads to a strongly phase-dependent reduction of the quantum efficiency of a phase-sensitive measurement. Finally, we quantify the departure from ideal Gaussian character of the filtered output field from numerical calculation of third and fourth order cumulants. Our results show that, while a Gaussian output field is expected for an ideal Josephson parametric amplifier, higher-order corrections lead to non-Gaussian effects which increase with both gain and nonlinearity strength. This theoretical study is complemented by experimental characterization of the output field of a flux-driven Josephson parametric amplifier. In addition to a measurement of the squeezing level of the filtered output field, the Husimi Q-function of the output field is imaged by the use of a deconvolution technique and compared to numerical results. This work establishes nonlinear corrections to the standard degenerate parametric amplifier model as an important contribution to Josephson parametric amplifier's squeezing and noise performance.

Generating non-classical light inside an optical cavity by depositing photons

The creation of non-classical states of light is an interesting problem, that we solve sending atoms through an optical cavity. We show that it is possible to add or subtract many photons from a cavity field by interacting it resonantly with a two-level atom. The atom, after entangling with the field inside the cavity and exiting it, may be measured in one of the Schmidt states, producing a multiphoton process (in the sense that can add or annihilate more photons than a single transition allows), i.e. adding or subtracting several photons from the cavity field. By plotting the quadratures and the Husimi Q-function, we also show that the non-classical state produced by such measurements is a squeezed state.