A Complete Characterization of Passive Unitary Normalizable (PUN) Gaussian States

Abstract

We provide a complete characterization of the class of multimode quantum Gaussian states that can be reduced to a tensor product of thermal states using only a passive unitary operator. We call these states \textit{passive unitary normalizable} (PUN) Gaussian states. The characterization of PUN Gaussian states is given in three different ways: $(i)$ in terms of their covariance matrices, $(ii)$ using gauge-invariance (a special class of Glauber--Sudarshan $p$-functions), and $(iii)$ with respect to the recently obtained $(A,\Lambda)$ parametrization of Gaussian states in [J. Math. Phys. 62, 022102 (2021)]. In terms of the covariance matrix, our characterization states that an $n$-mode quantum Gaussian state is PUN if and only if its $2n\times 2n$ quantum covariance matrix $S$ commutes with the standard symplectic matrix $J$. It is well-known that the so-called gauge-invariant Gaussian states are PUN, but whether the converse is true is not known in the literature to the best of our knowledge. We establish the converse in affirmation. Lastly, in terms of the $(A,\Lambda)$-parameterization, we show that a Gaussian state with parameters $(A,\Lambda)$ is PUN if and only if $A=0$.