PHOTON NUMBER AND COUNTING STATISTICS FOR A FIELD WITH GAUSSIAN CHARACTERISTIC FUNCTION

We examine the statistical properties of a single-mode electromagnetic field whose state is described by a Gaussian characteristic Function. Our single tool is the generating function of the photon-number proba bilities, for which we prove a kind of addition theorem with regard to its argument. As a consequence, we show that for this class of quantu m states, the photon-number distribution, its factorial moments, and t he counting distribution have the same functional form. We apply these results to some notorious particular cases: squeezed coherent and squ eezed thermal stales. Finally, we comment upon the selfscaling of the photon-number distribution. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.