Generalized canonical statistical operator and entropy of partially coherent radiation

✍ Scribed by M. Wiegand

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1983
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 608 KB
• Volume: 117
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0378-4371
• DOI: 10.1016/0378-4371(83)90036-5

✦ Synopsis

Using information-theoretical concepts and Glauber's correlation functions, the statistical operator of an Nth-order partially coherent radiation field is constructed. Special consideration is given to the cases N = 1 and N = 2. The entropy for N = 1 yields the early formula of von Laue. Our results for N > 1 shed new light on the relationship between thermodynamical order of a radiation field, as measured by its entropy, and optical coherence, especially in the quantummechanical case.