Tomogram-based quantifiers of nonclassicality dynamics in Kerr and cubic media

TL;DR

This paper introduces tomogram-based measures, the homodyne nonclassical area and sum tomographic entropy, as practical tools for quantifying nonclassicality dynamics in quantum states evolving in Kerr and cubic media, especially under environmental damping.

Contribution

It demonstrates that these measures are experimentally accessible, robust, and effective in tracking nonclassicality, offering an alternative to traditional, less feasible quantifiers.

Findings

Homodyne nonclassical area tracks the onset and decay of nonclassicality.

Sum tomographic entropy captures fractional revivals and phase-space interference.

Amplitude damping causes rapid decay, phase damping allows partial revivals.

Abstract

The reliable quantification of nonclassicality in quantum states under realistic decoherence remains a central challenge in advancing quantum technologies. Conventional quantifiers such as Wigner negativity, Mandel's $Q$-parameter, nonclassical depth, etc., are often experimentally intractable, non-unique, or insensitive to key quantum signatures. We demonstrate that tomogram-based measures, the homodyne nonclassical area and sum tomographic entropy, offer a robust, experimentally accessible alternative for quantifying nonclassicality dynamics, as they can be directly obtained from optical tomograms via balanced homodyne detection, avoiding density matrix reconstruction and ensuring feasibility. We study coherent, photon-added coherent, and even coherent states evolving in Kerr and cubic nonlinear systems, with environmental effects modelled using the Lindblad master equation under amplitude and phase damping. The homodyne nonclassical area, which quantifies the excess quadrature variance beyond that of a coherent state, tracks both the onset and decay of nonclassicality, clearly identifying fractional revivals, wave packet splitting, and macroscopic superpositions. We find that amplitude damping drives a rapid monotonic decay toward the vacuum, while phase damping allows partial revival features to survive longer. Complementing this, the sum tomographic entropy derived from conjugate-quadrature tomograms captures higher-order fractional revivals and phase-space interference through persistent entropy minima under weak damping. Our results establish homodyne-based quantifiers as powerful, real-time, and experimentally viable tools for tracking nonclassical dynamics in nonlinear optical media, offering a compelling alternative to conventional, experimentally challenging measures.