Experimental determination of a nonclassical Glauber-Sudarshan P function
T. Kiesel, W. Vogel, Valentina Parigi, Alessandro Zavatta, Marco Bellini · Physical Review A · 2008
A quantum state is nonclassical if its Glauber-Sudarshan $P$ function fails to be interpreted as a probability density. This quantity is often highly singular, so that its reconstruction is a demanding task. Here we present the experimental determination of a well-behaved $P$ function showing negativities for a single-photon-added thermal state. This is a direct visualization of the original definition of nonclassicality. The method can be useful under conditions for which many other signatures of nonclassicality would not persist.