Luis Aina, Alfredo2023-06-202023-06-202012-10-221094-408710.1364/OE.20.024686https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/44587© 2012 OSA. This work has been supported by Project No. FIS2008-01267 of the Spanish Direccion General de Investigacion del Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion, and from Project QUITEMAD S2009-ESP-1594 of the Consejeria de Educacion de la Comunidad de Madrid. I thank the anonymous reviewers for one of the demonstrations in Appendix A and other useful suggestions.We show that metrological resolution in the detection of small phase shifts provides a suitable generalization of the degrees of coherence and polarization. Resolution is estimated via Fisher information. Besides the standard two-beam Gaussian case, this approach provides also good results for multiple field components and nonGaussian statistics. This works equally well in quantum and classical optics.engjournal articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.20.024686http://www.osapublishing.orgopen access535Complete electromagnetic coherenceSpace-frequency domainKullback relative entropyPartially polarized-lightYoungs fringe visibilityUnitary transformationsMaximum visibilityFieldsPhaseWavesÓptica (Física)2209.19 Óptica Física