Finite models of quantum light that preserve Wigner positivity and the energy budget

The state space of quantum light contains infinitely many photon-number levels, whereas numerical models usually retain only finitely many. Direct truncation can introduce Wigner negativity into an initially Wigner-positive state. We prove that every Wigner-positive state of finitely many modes admits physical approximations with finite photon-number support under the same mean-energy cap. For \(m\) modes, mean total photon number at most \(E\), and trace-norm error at most \(\varepsilon\in(0,1]\), a sufficient cutoff is \[L=O\!\left((E+1)\varepsilon^{-2}\left[m+\ln\frac{E+2}{\varepsilon}\right]\right).\] The construction represents Wigner positivity by operator positivity in an enlarged system, where local photon-number projections preserve it. It yields finite semidefinite programmes whose optima \(q_L(A,E)\), for any bounded Hermitian observable \(A\), satisfy \[0\le\Omega_E(A)-q_L(A,E)\le\varepsilon\inf_{c\in\mathbb R}\|A-cI\|,\] where \(\Omega_E(A)\) is the optimum over all Wigner-positive states under the same energy cap. At fixed mode number and energy, a continuity bound also provides finite approximations to Wigner entropy minima and finite witnesses for every strict entropy deficit. These bounds determine how much of the infinite state space a calculation must retain to certify its conclusions.

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Publication Details

Journal
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Published
2026-09-28
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23022268
Primary Topic
Quantum Information and Cryptography
Type
preprint
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preprint

Finite models of quantum light that preserve Wigner positivity and the energy budget

Zixuan He
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Quantum Information and Cryptography
preprint

Finite models of quantum light that preserve Wigner positivity and the energy budget

Zixuan He
preprint en

Abstract

The state space of quantum light contains infinitely many photon-number levels, whereas numerical models usually retain only finitely many. Direct truncation can introduce Wigner negativity into an initially Wigner-positive state. We prove that every Wigner-positive state of finitely many modes admits physical approximations with finite photon-number support under the same mean-energy cap. For \(m\) modes, mean total photon number at most \(E\), and trace-norm error at most \(\varepsilon\in(0,1]\), a sufficient cutoff is \[L=O\!\left((E+1)\varepsilon^{-2}\left[m+\ln\frac{E+2}{\varepsilon}\right]\right).\] The construction represents Wigner positivity by operator positivity in an enlarged system, where local photon-number projections preserve it. It yields finite semidefinite programmes whose optima \(q_L(A,E)\), for any bounded Hermitian observable \(A\), satisfy \[0\le\Omega_E(A)-q_L(A,E)\le\varepsilon\inf_{c\in\mathbb R}\|A-cI\|,\] where \(\Omega_E(A)\) is the optimum over all Wigner-positive states under the same energy cap. At fixed mode number and energy, a continuity bound also provides finite approximations to Wigner entropy minima and finite witnesses for every strict entropy deficit. These bounds determine how much of the infinite state space a calculation must retain to certify its conclusions.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
University of Glasgow (GB)
Affordable and clean energy
Quantum Information and Cryptography
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Finite models of quantum light that preserve Wigner positivity and the energy budget — Zixuan He · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS