Nonclassical polarization states

Abstract

We study nonclassical polarization states characterized by polarization distributions taking negative values. We consider two different families of polarization distributions that include polarization analogs of the Wigner function. We apply different measures of nonclassical behavior such as the nonclassical depth and the distance of the polarization distribution to its modulus. This approach is applied to relevant quantum field states such as one-photon states, SU(2) coherent states, quadrature coherent states, and twin number states. We examine observables allowing the detection of the negativity of the polarization distributions.