Polarized light and geometric phase in qg units: Stokes parameters, Mueller matrices and Stokes' theorem
⟨ ⟩ The qang project describes qubits by measurement—level quantities, the qg values qgP = P [1]. This short note states two classical results in those units, implemented and checked in the qang library (pip install qang, version 0.6.0). First, a polarization state of light is a qubit: the normalized Stokes parameters are exactly the qg values, the degree of polarization P is the length of the qg vector, and a lossless Mueller matrix is the qg gate rule qg′ = qgU†PU . Malus's law becomes I = I0(1 + qgZ cos 2θ + qgX sin 2θ)/2 for any input state. Second, the — geometric phase of a closed loop on the Bloch (Poincaré) sphere is minus half the enclosed solid angle, which is Stokes' theorem for the Berry curvature. For a loop at constant qgZ the phase is (qgZ 1)/2 of a turn: it is fixed by qgZ alone. Nothing here is new physics. The contribution is the translation into qang's units and a set of 26 numerical checks, with the phase computed three independent ways.
Authors
- Vicente Humberto Monteverde (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8884-4811)
Institutions
- Aconcagua University (AR)
- University of Argentine Social Museum (AR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
- Published
- 2026-10-05
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23166064
- Primary Topic
- Optical Polarization and Ellipsometry
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00