Classical Light Beams and Geometric Phases

We present a study of geometric phases in classical wave and polarisation optics using the basic mathematical framework of quantum mechanics. Important physical situations taken from scalar wave optics, pure polarisation optics, and the behaviour of polarisation in the eikonal or ray limit of Maxwell's equations in a transparent medium are considered. The case of a beam of light whose propagation direction and polarisation state are both subject to change is dealt with, attention being paid to the validity of Maxwell's equations at all stages. Global topological aspects of the space of all propagation directions are discussed using elementary group theoretical ideas, and the effects on geometric phases are elucidated.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figur

Efficient Classical Simulation of Optical Quantum Circuits

We identify a broad class of physical processes in an optical quantum circuit that can be efficiently simulated on a classical computer: this class includes unitary transformations, amplification, noise, and measurements. This simulatability result places powerful constraints on the capability to realize exponential quantum speedups as well as on inducing an optical nonlinear transformation via linear optics, photodetection-based measurement and classical feedforward of measurement results, optimal cloning, and a wide range of other processes.Comment: 4 pages, published versio

Quantization of Contact Manifolds and Thermodynamics

The physical variables of classical thermodynamics occur in conjugate pairs such as pressure/volume, entropy/temperature, chemical potential/particle number. Nevertheless, and unlike in classical mechanics, there are an odd number of such thermodynamic co-ordinates. We review the formulation of thermodynamics and geometrical optics in terms of contact geometry. The Lagrange bracket provides a generalization of canonical commutation relations. Then we explore the quantization of this algebra by analogy to the quantization of mechanics. The quantum contact algebra is associative, but the constant functions are not represented by multiples of the identity: a reflection of the classical fact that Lagrange brackets satisfy the Jacobi identity but not the Leibnitz identity for derivations. We verify that this `quantization' describes correctly the passage from geometrical to wave optics as well. As an example, we work out the quantum contact geometry of odd-dimensional spheres.Comment: Additional references; typos fixed; a clarifying remark adde

Physical meaning of the radial index of Laguerre-Gauss beams

The Laguerre-Gauss modes are a class of fundamental and well-studied optical fields. These stable, shape-invariant photons - exhibiting circular-cylindrical symmetry - are familiar from laser optics, micro-mechanical manipulation, quantum optics, communication, and foundational studies in both classical optics and quantum physics. They are characterized, chiefly, by two modes numbers: the azimuthal index indicating the orbital angular momentum of the beam - which itself has spawned a burgeoning and vibrant sub-field - and the radial index, which up until recently, has largely been ignored. In this manuscript we develop a differential operator formalism for dealing with the radial modes in both the position and momentum representations, and - more importantly - give for the first time the meaning of this quantum number in terms of a well-defined physical parameter: the "intrinsic hyperbolic momentum charge".Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, comments encourage