Sufficient condition for a quantum state to be genuinely quantum non-Gaussian

Abstract

We show that the expectation value of the operator Ô ≡ exp (−cx̂²) + exp (−cpˆ²) defined by the position and momentum operators x̂ and pˆ with a positive parameter c can serve as a tool to identify quantum non-Gaussian states, that is states that cannot be represented as a mixture of Gaussian states. Our condition can be readily tested employing a highly efficient homodyne detection which unlike quantum-state tomography requires the measurements of only two orthogonal quadratures. We demonstrate that our method is even able to detect quantum non-Gaussian states with positive–definite Wigner functions. This situation cannot be addressed in terms of the negativity of the phase-space distribution. Moreover, we demonstrate that our condition can characterize quantum non-Gaussianity for the class of superposition states consisting of a vacuum and integer multiples of four photons under more than 50 % signal attenuation.