Sub-Planck phase-space structure and sensitivity for SU(1,1) compass states

Abstract

We investigate the sub-Planck-scale structures associated with the SU(1,1) group by establishing that the Planck scale on the hyperbolic plane can be considered as the inverse of the Bargmann index $k$. Our discussion involves SU(1,1) versions of Wigner functions, and the quantum-interference effect is easily visualized through plots of these Wigner functions. Specifically, the superpositions of four Perelomov SU(1,1) coherent states (compass state) yield nearly isotropic sub-Planck structures in phase space scaling as $\frac1{k}$ compared with $\frac1{\sqrt{k}}$ scaling for individual SU(1,1) coherent states and anisotropic quadratically improved scaling for superpositions of two SU(1,1) coherent states (cat state). We show that displacement sensitivity exhibits the same quadratic improvement to scaling.