VARIOUS MEASURES OF QUANTUM PHASE UNCERTAINTY - A COMPARATIVE-STUDY

We compare and contrast five measures of phase uncertainly of a quantu m state corresponding to a single mode of the electromagnetic field. T he basis of this study are the states which minimize a particular meas ure for a fixed number of Fock states and normalization. We find these optimal states and study their characteristic properties. These optim al states allow us to establish an ordering of the different definitio ns for phase uncertainty.