title: Fisher information as a generalized measure of coherence in classical and quantum optics.
abstract: We show that metrological resolution in the detection of small phase shifts provides a suitable generalization of the degrees of coherence and polarization. Resolution is estimated via Fisher information. Besides the standard two-beam Gaussian case, this approach provides also good results for multiple field components and nonGaussian statistics. This works equally well in quantum and classical optics.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Óptica, Facultad de Ciencias F´ısicas, Universidad Complutense 28040 Madrid, Spain. alluis@fis.ucm.es
authors.forename: Alfredo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Luis