Single-Photon Observables and Preparation Uncertainty Relations

Abstract

We propose a procedure for defining all single-photon observables in terms of Positive-Operator Valued Measures (POVMs), in particular spin and position. We identify the suppression of $0$-helicity photon states as a projection from an extended Hilbert space onto the photon Hilbert space. We show that all single-photon observables are in general described by POVMs, obtained by applying this projection to opportune Projection-Valued Measures (PVMs), defined on the extended Hilbert space. The POVMs associated to momentum and helicity reduce to PVMs, unlike those associated to position and spin, this fact reflecting the intrinsic unsharpness of these observables. We finally extensively study the preparation uncertainty relations for position and momentum and the probability distribution of spin, exploring single photon Gaussian states for several choices of spin and polarization.