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Free keywords:
QUANTUM PHASE-SPACE; WIGNER FUNCTION; ANGLE VARIABLES; COHERENT STATES;
MECHANICS; OPERATORS; CIRCLE; REPRESENTATION; TOMOGRAPHY; SCHWINGEROptics; Physics;
Abstract:
We set forth a method to analyze the orbital angular momentum of a light field. Instead of using the canonical formalism for the conjugate pair angle-angular momentum, we model this latter variable by the superposition of two independent harmonic oscillators along two orthogonal axes. By describing each oscillator by a standard Wigner function, we derive, via a consistent change of variables, a comprehensive picture of the orbital angular momentum. We compare this with previous approaches and show how this method works in some relevant examples.
