CANONICAL AND NON CANONICAL QUANTUM PHASE

MATTEO G. A. PARIS

Dipartimento di Fisica "Alessandro Volta'' dell'Universitá di Pavia, via Bassi 6, I-27100 Pavia, ITALIA,

e-mail: paris@pv.infn.it

and

Arbeitsgruppe 'Nichtklassische Strahlung' der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Rudower Chaussee 5, D-12489 Berlin, Germany

Received 7 January 1997
Revised manuscript received 28 March 1997

The so-called canonical phase variable for the quantized harmonic oscillator is usually derived from quantum estimation theory or by a limiting procedure in the Fock space. In this paper we show that, using the full content of Born's statistical rule, it can be uniquely derived from correspondence principle, in the framework of elementary quantum mechanics. Difficulties of the Pegg-Barnett approach are illustrated and non canonical phase variables arising from Mandel's experiments are also discussed.

UDC 530.145
PACS 03.65.Bz

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