ABSTRACT
CONTENTS 5.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 59 5.2 History of Field Quantization .................................................................... 61 5.3 Mode Functions............................................................................................63 5.4 Field Operators .............................................................................................65 5.5 Quantum States ............................................................................................66 5.6 Wigner Functions of Photons ..................................................................... 67 5.7 Measured Wigner Functions ...................................................................... 70 5.8 Wave Functional of Vacuum ...................................................................... 73 Conclusions ............................................................................................................75 Acknowledgments ................................................................................................75 References .............................................................................................................. 76
I don’t know anything about photons, but I know one when I see one Roy J. Glauber
We present a brief history of the photon and summarize the canonical procedure to quantize the radiation field. Our answer to the question “what is a photon?” springs from the Wigner representation of quantum mechanics as applied to a single photon number state.
