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Density matrix; polarization; Stokes parameters; quasi-probability distributions

Following the recent work of Chandleret al on quasi probability distributions for spin-1/2 particles, we show that polarized light can be interpreted in terms of trivariate probability distributions in two different ways by choosing the variates to correspond to (i) the co-ordinates on the Poincare sphere, (ii) the components of the spin operator of the photon. In either case, it is shown that the Margenau-Hill procedure leads to probability mass functions while the Wigner-Weyl approach leads to probability density functions and the well-known Stokes parameters are also realised as appropriate averages with respect to these distribution functions.

G Ramachandran¹ A R Usha Devi¹ N S Saandeep¹ Kannada Vardhana¹

1. Department of Studies in Physics, University of Mysore, Manasagangotri, Mysore - 570 006, India

Published

October 1995

Manuscript received

27 April 1995