PHASE-SENSITIVE RESERVOIR MODELED BY BEAM-SPLITTERS

The superposition of input fields in a lossless beam splitter is studied in the Schrodinger picture by using the convolution of the positive P representations, and the convolution law for these representations is extended to other quasiprobability functions such as the Wigner and Q functions. We show that the reservoir can be modeled by an infinite array of beam splitters, and we use the convolution law and this model to derive the Fokker-Planck equation for a system coupled with a phase-sensitive reservoir. Solving this equation shows that a phase-sensitive attenuation and amplification can be described by the superposition of two independent quantum fields, one of which is the initial signal field and the other the squeezed thermal noise field representing the reservoir.