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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

In the original paper  Nambu introduced his famous Poisson bracket, which describes a generalized Hamilton mechanics. Let $`(x^i,i=1,2,\mathrm{},n)`$ be a set of dynamical variables which span a $`n`$-dimensional phase space. A Nambu-Poisson structure is defined as

$`\{f_1,f_2,\mathrm{},f_n\}:={\displaystyle \underset{i_1,i_2,\mathrm{},i_n}{}}ϵ_{i_1,i_2,\mathrm{},i_n}{\displaystyle \frac{f_1}{x_{i_1}}}{\displaystyle \frac{f_2}{x_{i_2}}}\mathrm{}{\displaystyle \frac{f_n}{x_{i_n}}},`$ (1)
where $`ϵ_{i_1,i_2,\mathrm{},i_n}`$ is the $`n`$-dimensional Levi-Civita tensor. This bracket has the following properties

1. Skew-symmetry :

$`\{f_1,f_2,\mathrm{},f_n\}=(1)^{ϵ(p)}\{f_{p(1)},f_{p(2)},\mathrm{},f_{p(n)}\},`$
where $`p(i)`$ is the permutation of indices and $`ϵ(p)`$ is the parity of the permutation.
2. Derivation :

$`\{f_1f_2,f_3,\mathrm{},f_{n+1}\}=f_1\{f_2,f_3,\mathrm{},f_{n+1}\}+\{f_1,f_3,\mathrm{},f_{n+1}\}f_2.`$
3. Fundamental Identity (FI):

$`\{\{f_1,f_2,\mathrm{},f_n\},f_{n+1},\mathrm{},f_{2n1}\}=\{\{f_1,f_{n+1},\mathrm{},f_{2n1}\},f_2,\mathrm{},f_n\}`$
$`+\{f_1,\{f_2,f_{n+1},\mathrm{},f_{2n1}\},f_3,\mathrm{},f_n\}+\mathrm{}+\{f_1,\mathrm{},f_{n1},\{f_n,f_{n+1},\mathrm{},f_{2n1}\}\},`$
which is a generalization of the Jacobi identity.

The dynamics of a Nambu system is determined by $`(n1)`$ Hamiltonians $`H_1,H_2,\mathrm{},H_{n1}`$ and is described by Nambu-Hamiltonian equation

$`{\displaystyle \frac{df}{dt}}=\{f,H_1,H_2,\mathrm{},H_{n1}\}.`$ (2)
The quantization of Nambu bracket turns out to be a quite non-trivial problem. In general one expects that the quantum Nambu bracket satisfies some properties analogous to those of the classical Nambu bracket, i.e.

1. Skew-symmetry,

$`[A_1,A_2,\mathrm{},A_n]=(1)^{ϵ(p)}[A_{p(1)},A_{p(2)},\mathrm{},A_{p(n)}].`$ (3)
where $`p(i)`$ is the permutation of indices and $`ϵ(p)`$ is the parity of the permutation.
2. Derivation :

$`[A_1A_2,A_3,\mathrm{},A_{n+1}]=A_1[A_2,A_3,\mathrm{},A_{n+1}]+[A_1,A_3,\mathrm{},A_{n+1}]A_2.`$ (4)
3. Fundamental Identity (FI):

$`[[A_1,A_2,\mathrm{},A_n],A_{n+1},\mathrm{},A_{2n1}]=[[A_1,A_{n+1},\mathrm{},A_{2n1}],A_2,\mathrm{},A_n]`$ (5)
$`+[A_1,[A_2,A_{n+1},\mathrm{},A_{2n1}],A_3,\mathrm{},A_n]+\mathrm{}+[A_1,\mathrm{},A_{n1},[A_n,A_{n+1},\mathrm{},A_{2n1}]].`$

To maintain the skew-symmetry, it is natural to introduce the following quantum commutator

$`[A_1,A_2,\mathrm{},A_n]:={\displaystyle \underset{i_1,i_2,\mathrm{},i_n}{}}ϵ_{i_1,i_2,\mathrm{},i_n}(A_{i_1}A_{i_2}\mathrm{}A_{i_n}).`$ (6)
Thus the problem of quantizing Nambu bracket reduces to finding a proper quantum product, which maps $`n`$ objects to one, such that the quantum commutator (6) satisfies the derivation law (4) and the fundamental identity (5). This turns out to be a very difficult problem. Several quantization schemes have been proposed in the literatures. Among them, the Zariski quantization is a deformation quantization, which obeys all the three requirements listed in the above, and has a clear relationship with the classical Nambu bracket . In the other approaches, the quantum Nambu bracket does not satisfy the derivation law . In particular, Awata etc. proposed a matrix model realization of the quantum Nambu bracket, but its link to the classical Nambu bracket is quite obscure. We will give another matrix realization of the quantum Nambu bracket, which redues in the continuum limit to the classical Nambu bracket.

## 2 Quantum Nambu bracket

Let each of $`\{A_i,i=1,2,\mathrm{},n\}`$ denote a $`\stackrel{n}{\stackrel{}{N\times N\times \mathrm{}\times N}}`$ matrix, and $`𝒮_n(N)`$ the collection of all such matrices. we define the quantum product as follows ***Throughout the paper, any summation index will be specified explicitly.

$`(A^{(1)}A^{(2)}\mathrm{}A^{(n)})_{i_1i_2,\mathrm{},i_n}:={\displaystyle \underset{l}{}}A_{i_1i_2\mathrm{}i_{n1}l}^{(1)}\mathrm{}A_{i_1li_3\mathrm{}i_n}^{(n1)}A_{li_2\mathrm{}i_n}^{(n)}.`$ (7)
We may also define the inner scalar product, i.e. the “Trace

$`\mathrm{Tr}(A):={\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}}A_{ii\mathrm{}i}.`$ (8)
When $`n=2`$, we recover the usual product of the square matrix. When $`n3`$, the quantum product (7) is non-commutative and non-associative. The derivation law (4) does not hold since the product of two objects $`A_1`$ and $`A_2`$ does not make sense. Even worse, the above quantum product generally does not make the quantum commutator (6) satisfying the Fundamental Identity (5). We would expect that there exists some subset of $`𝒮_n(N)`$, which is closed under the quantum commuator (6), and obeys on the Fundamental Identity (5). We will give some examples to show that this is indeed the case.

In this article we only consider the quantization of the the even-dimensional Nambu bracket. To do so, set $`n=2m(m2)`$. Let $`𝒜𝒮_{2m}(N)`$ denote the subset of $`𝒮_{2m}(N)`$ containing all matrices which are totally antisymmetric, i.e.

$`A_{i_1i_2\mathrm{}i_{2m}}=(1)^{ϵ(p)}A_{p(i_1)p(i_2)\mathrm{}p(i_{2m})}.`$
It is obvious to see that this trucation is consistent with the quantum commutator(6), if we use the quantum product (7). When $`N<2m`$, the subset $`𝒜𝒮_n(N)`$ is empty. When $`N=2m`$, $`𝒜𝒮_n(N)`$ contains just one element, which generates an abelian algebra. So the Fundamental Identity is trivial. The first non-trivial example is the case $`N=2m+1`$, where $`𝒜𝒮_{2m}(N)`$ contains $`N`$ independent elements, which we may denote by

$`(T_a)_{i_1i_2\mathrm{}i_{2m}}:=ϵ_{ai_1i_2\mathrm{}i_{2m}},a=1,2,\mathrm{},N.`$ (9)
It is straightforward to show that these matrices generate a quantum algebra with the following commutation relation

$`[T_{a_1},T_{a_2},\mathrm{},T_{a_{2m}}]={\displaystyle \underset{b}{}}ϵ_{a_1a_2\mathrm{}a_{2m}b}T_b.`$ (10)
The fundamental identity is guaranteed by the following equality

$`{\displaystyle \underset{c}{}}(ϵ_{ca_1a_2\mathrm{}a_n}ϵ_{cb_1b_2\mathrm{}b_n}{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}}(a_ib_n))=0.`$ (11)
One may generalize the consideration here to the case with the general value of $`N`$.

## 3 The continuum limit

The quantum product (7) has a very simple geometric meaning. Consider $`N(Nn)`$ ordered points in $`(n1)`$-dimensional Euclidean space $`𝐑^{n1}`$. For each $`(n1)`$-dimensional convex with vertices $`(i_1,i_2,\mathrm{},i_n)`$ in general positions, we associate to it a matrix element $`A_{i_1,i_2,\mathrm{},i_n}`$. Adding a point $`l`$ to this convex leads to $`n`$ more convexes, all of which contain the point $`l`$. Thus we have a natural composition law,

$`\underset{n}{\underset{}{𝒮\times 𝒮\times \mathrm{}\times 𝒮}}𝒮,(A_{i_1i_2,\mathrm{},i_n})𝒮,`$ (12)
which glues $`n`$ convexes to one, and defines a general “group structure”. The explicit form of this composition law is given by the quantum product (7).

The geometric picture provides a way to analyse the continuum limit of the quantum Nambu bracket. To do so, we may take the following viewpoint. Each matrix defines a map from the set of convexes to the field $`𝐑`$ or $`𝐂`$,

$`A:\{\mathrm{convexes}\}𝐑(\mathrm{or}𝐂).`$
Each convex can be characterized by its center and volume We may think of that the ordered points are sited on a $`(n1)`$-dimensional rectangular lattice. The volume-preserving symmetry group of the lattice is $`sl(n1,𝐙)`$. We are interested in the quotient lattice space, which is the regular lattice modulo out $`sl(n1,𝐙)`$ symmetry., which is

$`\stackrel{}{x}:={\displaystyle \frac{ϵ}{n}}(\stackrel{}{i}_1+\stackrel{}{i}_2+\mathrm{}+\stackrel{}{i}_n)=(x_1,x_2,\mathrm{},x_{n1}),ϵ:={\displaystyle \frac{1}{N}},`$
$`\mathrm{vol}:={\displaystyle \frac{1}{(n1)!}}ϵ_{\mu _1\mu _2\mathrm{}\mu _{n1}}(\stackrel{}{i}_1\stackrel{}{i}_n)_{\mu _1}(\stackrel{}{i}_2\stackrel{}{i}_n)_{\mu _2}\mathrm{}(\stackrel{}{i}_{n1}\stackrel{}{i}_n)_{\mu _{n1}},`$
$`\stackrel{}{v}^{(j)}=\stackrel{}{i}_{nj+1}\stackrel{}{l},1jn.`$
Where $`(\mu _1,\mu _2,\mathrm{},\mu _{n1})`$ are indices of the Cartesian coordinates in the $`(n1)`$-dimensional space. To go to the continuum limit, we let all the $`n`$-indices $`(i_1i_2,\mathrm{},i_n)`$ go to infinity, but their differences finite. Thus $`\stackrel{}{x}`$ become the continuum variables. To characterize the dependence of a matrix on the volume of the convex, we introduce a new parameter $`x_n`$, such that

$`{\displaystyle \frac{f(\stackrel{}{x},x_n)}{x_n}}:=f(\stackrel{}{x},x_n)\mathrm{vol},`$
here $`f(\stackrel{}{x},x_n)`$ is the continuum limit of the matrix $`A_{i_1i_2,\mathrm{},i_n}`$. One may think of $`x_n`$ as the constant density of mass, momentum or charge, etc. With these notations, we may expand the commutator (6) in the powers of $`ϵ`$, and we find that

$`[A^{(1)},A^{(2)},\mathrm{},A^{(n)}]=({\displaystyle \frac{n!ϵ^{n1}}{n^{n1}}})\{f^{(1)},f^{(2)},\mathrm{},f^{(n)}\}+𝒪(ϵ^n).`$ (13)
## 4 Conclusion

In this letter we have constructed a quantum Nambu bracket via matrices of multi-index. We have shown that our quantum commutator has the right continuum limit. Our construction may be helpful to quantize $`p`$-brane theory, just like what we did in studying $`2`$-dimensional quantum gravity by the ordinary matrix models. Furthermore if we regard the points in $`𝐑^{n1}`$ as a set of $`D0`$-particles, we may expect a matrix theory in more general setting. We wish to discuss these problems in more details elsewhere.

Acknowledgements

We thank Drs. H. Awata, M. Li, X.C. Song, M. YU and C. J. Zhu for discussions and comments. The work is supported in part by NSFC grant 19925521 and by the Startup grant from Beijing University.


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# Trapped ions in laser fields: a benchmark for deformed quantum oscillators

## I Introduction

The theory of certain one-parameter (q–) deformations of Lie algebras, the so called quantum groups has been of great interest in the last decade in several areas of physics. In 1989 Biedenharn  and McFarlane  independently defined the q-analogue coherent state of a deformed q-oscillator, for which Nelson et al.  were able to obtain the resolution of unity. Since then the properties of a class of deformations of the harmonic oscillator were considered by several authors (see f.i. ). Deformed quantum oscillators are represented by dynamical variables $`A`$, $`A^{}`$ and $`N_A`$ satisfying the commutation relations, $`[A,N_A]=A,`$ $`[A^{},N_A]=A^{}`$ and $`[A,A^{}]=f\left(N_A\right)`$, with $`f\left(N_A\right)`$ an arbitrary real function of $`N_A`$. All such variables are constructed in terms of single-mode field operators***wherever possible operators will be indicated by simple letters, except for the addition of a caret when confusion could arise with c-number quantities $`a,a^{}`$ and $`a^{}a.`$

In 1993 Crnugelj et al.  observed that the multiphoton interaction of a single mode laser field with a two level atom is described by deformed-oscillator creation and annihilation operators which in combination with the pseudo-spin atomic operators $`\sigma _+`$ and $`\sigma _{}`$, form the potential

$`W_{JC}=A^{}\sigma _{}+A\sigma _+`$

used in the Jaynes-Cummings model (JCM) .

In that period the J-C model was at center of the attention for the study of laser cooling of ions placed in parabolic traps, with the quantized center-of-mass motion of the ion playing the role of the boson mode, coupled via the laser to the internal degrees of freedom. In the case of cooling the operator $`A`$ is represented by a combination of some power of the annihilation operator $`a`$ times a function of $`n`$. When some bosons of the oscillator mode are destroyed the ion is excited to the upper level from where it decays radiatively. Cooling was investigated in Lamb-Dicke  and strong-sideband  limits, that is for ion excursions small compared with the radiation wavelength. This study led to the discovery of many intriguing effects connected with the nonclassical properties of the field, like as a long-time sensitivity to the statistical properties of the radiation field . For example, the mean excitation number of the quantized oscillations of a ion driven by a squeezed field exhibited periodic collapses and revivals .

The interest for the vibrational motion of trapped ions was also motivated by the connection between the state of motion and the properties of the fluorescence spectra . This link led some experimentalists to look for new non classical radiation states generated by trapped ions forced into some unusual vibrational states. In analogy to the preparation of nonclassical states of light in quantum optics several authors examined the preparation of the center-of-mass motion in a quantum state having no classical counterpart. Worthy examples were those of Cirac et al.  who considered the possibility of generating squeezed states of the vibrational motion by irradiating the trapped ion with two standing-wave light fields of different frequencies and locating the center of the trap potential at a common node of both waves. In all these cases the nonlinear dependence of $`A`$ on $`a,a^{}`$ and $`\widehat{n}`$, stemmed from the ion motion in the trap potential.

de Matos Filho and Vogel  observed in 1993 that the center-of-mass state of a trapped ion driven by a two-mode laser field decays toward a dark state coincident with a nonlinear coherent state (hereinafter called NCS) of a deformed oscillator. This result brought new fuel to the study of deformed oscillators describing different classes of states arising in the trapped ion motion under the action of two or three fields detuned by multiples of the vibrational frequency (see f.i.  for nonlinear cat states). In the wake of this interest attention was paid to theoretical models of deformed oscillators, like those connected with excited coherent states and binomial states . All these non-linear oscillators differ for the deformation function $`h\left(\widehat{n}\right)`$ connecting the annihilation operator $`a`$ to the deformed one $`A=ah\left(\widehat{n}\right)`$. The ancestor of these realizations were the q-oscillators characterized by a deformation $`h_q\left(\widehat{n}\right)=\sqrt{\frac{\mathrm{sinh}\left(\lambda \widehat{n}\right)}{\widehat{n}\mathrm{sinh}\lambda }}`$ increasing with $`n`$. Contrarily the trapped ion deformation is a very irregular function of $`n`$, taking positive and negative values. What is worse, for some combinations of the Lamb-Dicke parameter $`\eta ^2`$ and $`n`$ it can vanish or become infinite. As a consequence it is hard to capitalize on the work done for the q-oscillator for studying the NCS of a trapped ion. In particular, while for the q-case it has been found a measure resolving the unity, the same is not exactly true for the ion case. As a consequence the formalism of the Bargmann spaces , which has been extended from the linear oscillators to the q-ones, cannot be applied exactly to the ion case. In fact, it will be shown in the following that this can be done by considering a class of rational deformations which approximate to any degree of accuracy the ion deformation. In most experimental cases the statistical state of a trapped ion is limited to a finite number of Fock states so that these rational deformations may adequately approximate the ion deformation. Only in this ”weak” sense it is possible to construct a ion-analogue of a Bargmann space, on which the deformed creation and annihilation operators are represented as multiplication by $`z`$ and differentiation with respect to $`z`$, respectively.

This paper is dedicated to an extension of the theory of the usual coherent states to NCS using as examples the deformation relative to the dark states of trapped ions. We start with a single-mode excitation field $`A`$ (Sec. II), by discussing some properties of NCS, and introducing a deformed version $`D_h\left(\alpha \right)`$ of the displacement operator (Sec. III). In Sec. IV we discuss some aspects of the resolution of unity for these NCS. The operator $`D_h\left(\alpha \right)`$ is used in Sec. V for associating the density matrix operator $`\widehat{\rho }`$ to a linear functional $`\rho _{A,h}\left(z\right)`$ mapping the test function $`\mathrm{exp}\left(\alpha z^{}\alpha ^{}z\right)`$ into the expectation value $`D_h\left(\alpha \right)`$, by extending the construction of the antinormal probability distribution function . The connection with the P-representation is also briefly examined. Section VI is dedicated to NCS on a circle, for which the Wigner functions are presented. Finally, the last section is dedicated to the dark states, arising when a trapped ion is driven by a bichromatic laser field. An asymptotic expression of the deformation and the relative factorial is obtained and its implication on the convergence of the NCS series is discussed. It comes out that it converges only for $`\alpha `$ in a circle of radius equal to the inverse of $`\eta `$. On the other hand the weight of each Fock state can take values so large to prevent the resolution of unity in terms of normalized NCS. Some approximate expressions of the deformation are discussed together with the possibility of using these NCS for representing the ion statistical state.

## II Motion of a trapped and laser-driven ion

We consider an ideal two-level ion of mass M constrained to move in a 3D harmonic potential. Taking the principal trap (x-axis) axis to coincide with the direction of propagation of the driving field, one quantum number suffices to label the vibrational states of the trap. The other two are traced out by summing over the corresponding degrees of freedom.

The ion’s internal and external degrees of freedom are coupled together by a light field $`e^{i\omega _Lt+i\phi \left(t\right)}`$ periodically modulated at the frequency $`\nu `$ of the ion trap

$`E(x,t)=e^{i\omega _Lt+i\phi \left(t\right)}g\left(t\right)f\left(x\right)+h.c.`$

where $`g\left(t\right)=g\left(t+\frac{2\pi }{\nu }\right)`$ is a generally complex periodic function of frequency $`\nu `$ and $`h.c.`$ stays for the Hermitian conjugate. The function $`f\left(x\right)`$ stands for $`e^{ik_Lx}`$ or $`\mathrm{sin}\left(k_Lx+\varphi \right)`$ respectively for a progressive or standing wave, with the phase $`\varphi `$ determining the position of the trap potential with respect to the standing wave.

We will dwell on monochromatic

$`g_{N+1}^{\left(1\right)}\left(t\right)=e^{i\left(N+1\right)\nu t}`$

and bichromatic driving fields

$`g_{N+1}^{\left(2\right)}\left(t\right)=e^{i\left(N+1\right)\nu t}\alpha _{N+1}`$

with the parameter $`N`$ taking non-negative integer values, and $`\alpha _{N+1}`$ a complex coefficient depending on the amplitudes of the two waves.

Now, introducing the Lamb-Dicke parameter $`\eta =\mathrm{}k_L/\sqrt{2M\mathrm{}\nu }`$ we put as usual $`e^{ikx}=e^{i\eta \left(a_v^{}+a_v\right)}`$. In the classical limit $`\eta `$ is large and the absorption or emission of a photon will always cause some change in the vibrational state of the atom. In the non-classical Lamb-Dicke limit (LDL) of small $`\eta `$, many photons may need to be absorbed or emitted before the atom changes vibrational state. For example in the sideband cooling experiment carried out by Diedrich et al.  the parameter $`\eta `$ was equal to $`0.06`$.

The Hamiltonian for a trapped ion interacting with a bichromatic field can be split in two parts

$`H=H_0+H_{int}`$

where ($`\mathrm{}=1`$)

$$H_0=\omega _{12}\sigma _3+\nu \widehat{n}$$
(1)
and, in the electric dipole approximation,

$`H_{int}=\mathrm{}\left(\sigma _{}E^{}(x,t)+\sigma _+E(x,t)\right)`$

When the Rabi frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, relative to the laser induced transition between the ion ground and excited levels, is much smaller than the trapping potential frequency $`\nu `$, a perturbation expansion can be carried out in $`\mathrm{\Omega }/\nu `$, as discussed in Ref. . This expansion allows a division into quickly and slowly varying density operator matrix elements, the former of which can be adiabatically eliminated.

Arresting the calculation to the zeroth-order in $`\mathrm{\Omega }/\nu `$ amounts to applying the rotating wave approximation. This approach can be easily pursued by switching to the interaction picture defined by the unitary operator $`U_{rw}=\mathrm{exp}\left[i\left(\omega _L\sigma _3+\nu \widehat{n}\right)t\right]`$ and retaining in the transformed hamiltonian $`H^{}`$ the time-independent terms together with the slowly varying phase $`\phi \left(t\right)`$ of the laser field,

$$H^{}=\left(\mathrm{\Delta }\dot{\phi }\left(t\right)\right)\sigma _3+\mathrm{\Omega }\left(\sigma _{}A+\sigma _+A^{}\right)$$
(2)
with $`\mathrm{\Delta }=\omega _{12}\omega _L`$ the detuning parameter, $`\mathrm{\Omega }=e^{\eta ^2/2}\mathrm{}`$ the vibronic Rabi frequency and

$$A=e^{\eta ^2/2}\overline{g\left(t\right)f\left[\eta \left(e^{i\nu t}a^{}+e^{i\nu t}a\right)\right]}$$
(3)
the bar indicating the time average.

Expanding the factor $`e^{i\eta \left(e^{i\nu t}a^{}+e^{i\nu t}a\right)}`$ in power series in $`a`$ and $`a^{}`$, introducing the operator

$$f_k(\widehat{n},\eta ^2)=\underset{m=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{\left(\widehat{n}m+1\right)_m}{\left(k+1\right)_mm!}\left(\eta ^2\right)^m=k!\frac{L_{\widehat{n}}^k\left(\eta ^2\right)}{\left(\widehat{n}+1\right)_k}$$
(4)
with $`\left(\widehat{n}m+1\right)_m=\left(a^{}\right)^ma^m=\widehat{n}\left(\widehat{n}1\right)\mathrm{}\left(\widehat{n}m+1\right)`$ and $`L_{\widehat{n}}^k\left(\eta ^2\right)`$ reducing in the Fock basis to the generalized Laguerre polynomials, we obtain respectively for progressive

$$e^{i\eta \left(e^{i\nu t}a^{}+e^{i\nu t}a\right)}=e^{\eta ^2/2}\underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}ϵ_k\frac{\left(i\eta \right)^k}{k!}\left[f_k\left(\widehat{n}\right)a^ke^{ik\nu t}+\left(a^{}\right)^kf_k\left(\widehat{n}\right)e^{ik\nu t}\right]$$
(5)
and standing waves

$$\mathrm{sin}\left[\eta \left(a^{}+a\right)+\varphi \right]=e^{\eta ^2/2}\underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}ϵ_k\frac{\left(\eta \right)^k}{k!}\mathrm{sin}\left(\varphi +k\frac{\pi }{2}\right)\left[a^kf_k\left(\widehat{n}+k\right)e^{ik\nu t}+f_k\left(\widehat{n}+k\right)\left(a^{}\right)^ke^{ik\nu t}\right]$$
(6)
with $`k`$ a positive integer and $`ϵ_k=\frac{1}{2}`$ for $`k=0`$ and $`ϵ_k=1`$ otherwise.

For progressive $`\left(p\right)`$ and stationary $`\left(s\right)`$ monochromatic waves with $`g\left(t\right)=e^{i\left(N+1\right)\nu t}`$ the operator $`A`$ (see (3)) is given by

$`A_p^{\left(1\right)}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\left(i\eta \right)^{N+1}}{\left(N+1\right)!}}f_{N+1}(\widehat{n},\eta ^2)a^{N+1}`$ (7)
$`A_s^{\left(1\right)}`$ $`=`$ $`\left(i\right)^{N+1}\mathrm{sin}\left(\varphi +(N+1){\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{2}}\right)A_p^{\left(1\right)}`$ (8)
while for two modes bichromatic driving fields

$`A_p^{\left(2\right)}`$ $`=`$ $`f_{N+1}\left(\widehat{n}\right)a^{N+1}\alpha _{N+1}f_0\left(\widehat{n}\right)`$ (9)
$`A_s^{\left(2\right)}`$ $`=`$ $`\left(i\right)^{N+1}\mathrm{sin}\left(\varphi +(N+1){\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{2}}\right)f_{N+1}\left(\widehat{n}\right)a^{N+1}+\mathrm{sin}\left(\varphi \right)\alpha _{N+1}f_0\left(\widehat{n}\right).`$ (10)
## III Nonlinear coherent states

Coherent states were originally introduced as eigenstates of the annihilation operator for the harmonic oscillator . They have been generalized (see ) by labeling as nonlinear coherent states $`|\alpha ,h`$ the right-hand eigenstates

$$A|\alpha ,h=\alpha |\alpha ,h$$
(11)
of operatorsfor the sake of notational simplicity we will use the same symbol $`A`$ for indicating fields of the form (8) and (10). $`A`$ of the form

$$A=ah\left(\widehat{n}\right)$$
(12)
where $`h\left(\widehat{n}\right)`$ is an operator-valued real function of the number operator. It is immediate to show that

$$|\alpha ,h=N_{h,\alpha }\underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{\alpha ^n}{\sqrt{n!}\left[h\left(n\right)\right]!}|n$$
(13)
with $`\left[h\left(n\right)\right]!=h\left(0\right)h\left(1\right)\mathrm{}h\left(n\right)`$ and normalizing factor $`N_{h,\alpha }`$

$`N_{\alpha ,h}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{E_h\left(\left|\alpha \right|^2\right)}}}`$

expressed in terms of the entire function

$`E_h\left(v\right)={\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{v^n}{n!\left(\left[h\left(n\right)\right]!\right)^2}}`$

referred to in the following as h-exponential in analogy with the q-exponential used in Ref. .

The deformation functions $`h(n,\eta ^2)`$ associated to the dark states of the trapped ions are represented by the ratio of two Laguerre polynomials of argument equal to the Lamb–Dicke parameter $`\eta ^2`$ so that they vanish or become infinite for some isolated combinations of $`\eta ^2`$ and $`n`$. We are obliged to explicitly assume that this situation does not occur for the values of $`\eta ^2`$ considered.

In Sec. VII we will obtain an asymptotic expression of the weights of the Fock states occurring in the series expansion of the NCS relative to trapped ions. They take very large and very small values for increasing $`n`$, so that these NCS can be normalized only for $`\alpha `$ inside the circle $`1/\eta .`$ For convenience of discussion we shall ignore this problem by restricting our treatment here to normalized NCS states.

It may be worth noting at this point that many of the foregoing formulas may be abbreviated by adopting a normalization different from the conventional one for the coherent state. If we introduce the symbol $`\alpha ;h`$ for the states normalized in the new way and define these as

$`\alpha ;h=N_{\alpha ,h}^1|\alpha ;h`$

and

$`\alpha ;h\beta ;h=E_h\left(\alpha ^{}\beta \right).`$

Since the commutator $`[A^{},A]=\widehat{n}h^2\left(\widehat{n}\right)(\widehat{n}+1)h^2(\widehat{n}+1)`$ is not a c-number it is worthy introducing the operator

$$A_h^{}=\frac{1}{h\left(\widehat{n}\right)}a^{}$$
(14)
With these alterations we have

$`A\alpha ,h`$ $`=`$ $`\alpha \alpha ,h,`$
$`\widehat{n}\alpha ,h`$ $`=`$ $`\alpha {\displaystyle \frac{}{\alpha }}\alpha ,h,`$
$`A_h^{}\alpha ,h`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{}{\alpha }}\alpha ,h.`$
In addition

$$A^{}\alpha ,h=h^2\left(\widehat{n}\right)A_h^{}\alpha ,h=h^2\left(\alpha \frac{}{\alpha }\right)\frac{}{\alpha }\alpha ,h$$
(15)
In all the above r.h.s. the operators $`\alpha ,_\alpha `$ and their combination are intended to act on the coefficients of the Fock states series.

### A Displacement and deformation operators

It is well known that coherent state $`|\alpha `$ can be also introduced by displacing the Fock vacuum state $`|0`$ by means of the operator

$$𝒟\left(\alpha \right)=\mathrm{exp}\left(\alpha ^{}a+\alpha a^{}\right)$$
(16)
due to its property of displacing the annihilation operator $`a`$ by the generally complex quantity $`\alpha `$,

$`𝒟\left(\alpha \right)a𝒟\left(\alpha \right)=a\alpha `$

Unfortunately, $`𝒟\left(\alpha \right)`$ is unable to displace the deformed operator $`A`$. In alternative $`𝒟\left(\alpha \right)`$ could be replaced by the unitary operator obtained by replacing in Eq. (16) $`a`$ and $`a^{}`$ by $`A`$ and $`A^{}`$ respectively, but also this operator does not displace $`A`$ by the complex quantity $`\alpha `$. The difficulties in dealing with exponentials of linear combinations of $`A`$ and $`A^{}`$ originate from the circumstance that their commutator is not a c-number. These problems can be overcome by using $`A_h^{}`$ (see Eq. (14)) in place of $`A^{}`$ and defining the ”deformed” version of the displacement operator as

$$𝒟_h\left(\alpha \right)=\mathrm{exp}\left(\alpha ^{}A+\alpha A_h^{}\right)=e^{\frac{\left|\alpha \right|^2}{2}}e^{\alpha ^{}A}e^{\alpha A_h^{}}=e^{\frac{\left|\alpha \right|^2}{2}}e^{\alpha A_h^{}}e^{\alpha ^{}A}$$
(17)
$`𝒟_h\left(\alpha \right)`$ shares many properties of the standard operator $`𝒟\left(\alpha \right)`$ as

$`𝒟_h^1\left(\alpha \right)=𝒟_h\left(\alpha \right)`$

and

$`𝒟_h\left(\beta \right)𝒟_h\left(\alpha \right)=\mathrm{exp}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(\beta \alpha ^{}\beta ^{}\alpha \right)\right]𝒟_h\left(\beta +\alpha \right)`$

However, $`𝒟_h\left(\alpha \right)`$ is not a unitary operator,

$`𝒟_h^{}\left(\alpha \right)=𝒟_{\frac{1}{h}}^1\left(\alpha \right)=𝒟_{\frac{1}{h}}\left(\alpha \right)`$

so that it does not preserve the norm of a state.

$`𝒟_h\left(\alpha \right)`$ and $`𝒟_{\frac{1}{h}}\left(\alpha \right)`$ displace $`A`$ and $`A^{}`$ respectively by $`\alpha `$ and $`\alpha ^{}`$,

$`𝒟_h\left(\alpha \right)A𝒟_h\left(\alpha \right)`$ $`=`$ $`A\alpha `$ (18)
$`𝒟_{\frac{1}{h}}\left(\alpha \right)A^{}𝒟_{\frac{1}{h}}\left(\alpha \right)`$ $`=`$ $`A^{}\alpha ^{}`$ (19)
and $`A_h^{}`$ by $`\alpha ^{}`$

$$𝒟_h\left(\alpha \right)A_h^{}𝒟_h\left(\alpha \right)=A_h^{}\alpha ^{}$$
(20)
Accordingly, the NCS $`|\alpha ;h`$ can be obtained by applying $`𝒟_h\left(\alpha \right)`$ to the vacuum state,

$`\alpha ;h=e^{\alpha A_h^{}}|0=e^{\frac{\left|\alpha \right|^2}{2}}𝒟_h\left(\alpha \right)|0`$

In conclusion, the NCS $`\alpha ;h`$ can be obtained by deforming the usual coherent state $`\alpha `$ by means of the deformation operator

$$d_h=𝒟_h\left(\alpha \right)𝒟\left(\alpha \right)$$
(21)
namely,

$`\alpha ;h=d_h\alpha `$

Although expressed as a product of operators depending on the complex parameter $`\alpha ,`$ $`d_h`$ is independent of $`\alpha `$. In a Fock basis it is diagonal with components equal to $`\left[h\left(n\right)\right]!^1`$. Since $`h\left(n\right)`$ does not vanish, as already assumed, $`d_h`$ is not singular.

Finally, we note that

$`m\left|𝒟_h\left(\alpha \right)\right|n={\displaystyle \frac{\left[h\left(m\right)\right]!}{\left[h\left(n\right)\right]!}}m\left|𝒟\left(\alpha \right)\right|n`$

so that the matrix representation of $`𝒟`$ and $`𝒟_h`$ have the same diagonal part.

A further remark is that the set of operators $`𝒟_h(\alpha )`$ constitutes a Weyl system which does not lead to the canonical quantization for not being unitary.

### B Nonlinear displaced Fock states

In Sec. V we will use the Fock states displaced by $`𝒟_h\left(\alpha \right)`$ (see Eq. (30))

$$|\phi _m,\alpha ,h=𝒟_h\left(\alpha \right)|m$$
(22)
which can be shown with the help of Eqs. (19) and (20) to be the right eigenstates of the operator $`\left(A_h^{}\alpha ^{}\right)\left(A\alpha \right)=𝒟_h\left(\alpha \right)\widehat{n}𝒟_h\left(\alpha \right)`$,

$`\left(A_h^{}\alpha ^{}\right)\left(A\alpha \right)|\phi _m,\alpha ,h=m|\phi _m,\alpha ,h`$

Analogously we can introduce the left eigenstates defined by

$`\psi _m,\alpha ,h|\left(A_h^{}\alpha ^{}\right)\left(A\alpha \right)=m\psi _m,\alpha ,h|`$

which are obtained by displacing $`m|`$ by $`𝒟_h\left(\alpha \right),`$ i.e. $`\psi _m,\alpha ,h|=m|𝒟_h\left(\alpha \right).`$

It is noteworthy that the left and right displaced Fock states are mutually orthogonal,

$`\psi _m,\alpha ,h|\phi _n,\alpha ,h=0`$

for $`mn.`$

On the other hand these states can be also expressed in the form

$`|\phi _m,\alpha ,h`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\left[h\left(m\right)\right]!\left(A_h^{}\alpha ^{}\right)^m}{\sqrt{m!}}}|\alpha ,h={\displaystyle \frac{\left[h\left(m\right)\right]!}{\sqrt{m!}}}{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{m}{n}}\right)\left(\alpha ^{}\right)^{mn}|\alpha ,h,m`$
$`\psi _m,\alpha ,h|`$ $`=`$ $`m|D_h\left(\alpha \right)=\alpha ,h|{\displaystyle \frac{\left(A\alpha \right)^m}{\left[h\left(m\right)\right]!\sqrt{m!}}}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\left[h\left(m\right)\right]!\sqrt{m!}}}{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{m}{n}}\right)\left(\alpha \right)^{mn}\alpha ,h,m|`$
where $`|\alpha ,h,m=A_h^m|\alpha ,h`$ and $`\alpha ,h,m|=\alpha ,h|A^m`$ stand for the deformed versions of the excited coherent states  (see also ).

## IV Resolution of the unity

From the completeness relation of coherent states

$`1={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi }}{\displaystyle |\alpha \alpha |d^2\alpha }`$

it descends

$`1={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi }}{\displaystyle d_h|\alpha \alpha \left|d_h^1d^2\alpha =\frac{1}{\pi }d_h^1\right|\alpha \alpha |d_hd^2\alpha }`$

Next, using the relation

$`d_h^1=𝒟\left(\alpha \right)𝒟_{\frac{1}{h}}^{}\left(\alpha \right)=\left(𝒟_{\frac{1}{h}}\left(\alpha \right)𝒟\left(\alpha \right)\right)^{}=d_{\frac{1}{h}}^{}`$

the above resolution of unity can be expressed in terms of deformed coherent states

$$1=\frac{1}{\pi }\frac{e^{\alpha \alpha }}{N_{\alpha ,h}N_{\alpha ,\frac{1}{h}}}|\alpha ,h\alpha ,h^1\left|d^2\alpha =\frac{1}{\pi }\frac{e^{\alpha \alpha }}{N_{\alpha ,h}N_{\alpha ,\frac{1}{h}}}\right|\alpha ,h^1\alpha ,h|d^2\alpha $$
(23)
It goes without saying that this resolution holds true only if the NCS relative to the deformations $`h`$ and $`1/h`$ are both normalizable in the whole complex $`\alpha `$–plane.

For some deformations anyhow it is possible to obtain a resolution of unity in terms of projectors of deformed coherent states, i.e. to find a suitable element of measure $`d\mu `$ such that

$$1=\alpha ,h\alpha ,h𝑑\mu $$
(24)
$`d\mu `$ can be considered as an extension of the measure element $`d\mu =\frac{1}{\pi }e^{\left|\alpha \right|^2}d^2\alpha `$  for the linear oscillators. Since $`m\alpha ,h\alpha ,hn𝑑\mu `$ must vanish for $`mn`$ $`d\mu `$ can be put in the form

$`d\mu ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi }}m_h\left(\left|\alpha \right|^2\right)d^2\alpha `$

where $`m_h\left(x\right)`$ is a distribution satisfying the set of equations

$$n!\left(\left[h\left(n\right)\right]!\right)^2=m_h\left(x\right)x^n𝑑x$$
(25)
for every integer $`n`$.

Treating $`n=s1`$ as a continuous variable the above relation represents a Mellin integral transform,

$$g\left(s\right)=_0^{\mathrm{}}f\left(x\right)x^{s1}𝑑x$$
(26)
so that $`m_h\left(x\right)`$ is the Mellin antitransform of $`g\left(s\right)=\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(s\right)\left(\left[h\left(s1\right)\right]!\right)^2`$.

From the relation $`\beta ,h\left|A^m\right|\beta ,h=\beta ^m`$ it descends that $`E_h\left(\beta ^{}\alpha \right)`$ is the self-reproducing kernel of the h-analogue of the Bargmann space , with respect to $`d\mu `$

$`{\displaystyle \left|E_h\left(\beta ^{}\alpha \right)\right|^2\alpha ^m𝑑\mu }=\beta ^m`$

In preparation of the discussion of Sec. VII it is worth remarking that replacing $`h`$ by the deformation $`\beta h`$ the relative measure $`m_{\beta h}\left(x\right)`$ is given by

$$m_{\beta h}\left(x\right)=\beta ^2m_h\left(\beta ^2x\right)$$
(27)
This relation can be also used for expressing a thermal density matrix characterized by Boltzmann weight factors $`\rho _{nn}\mathrm{exp}\left(\beta n\right)`$ in the form

$`\widehat{\rho }=e^{2\beta }{\displaystyle \frac{m_h\left(e^{2\beta }\left|\alpha \right|^2\right)}{m_h\left(\left|\alpha \right|^2\right)}\alpha ,h\alpha ,h𝑑\mu }`$

In Ref.  it was possible to obtain the resolution of unity for a q-oscillator by deforming both the derivative and the integral operators while a resolution for the so-called harmonious states was obtained in . We will see in the following that for the trapped ion deformation the measure is a distributional Laplace antitransform which includes non-normalizable NCS.

For a deformation approximated by a rational function of $`n`$, $`g\left(s\right)`$ corresponds to the ratio of products of gamma functions,

$$g\left(s\right)=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(a_1+s\right)\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(a_A+s\right)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(b_1+s\right)\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(b_B+s\right)}\mathrm{\Gamma }\left[\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\left(a\right)+s}{\left(b\right)+s}\right]$$
(28)
For $`AB`$ the relative antitransform is given by a combination of generalized hypergeometric functions

$`{}_{C}{}^{}F_{D}^{}[{\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\left(c\right)}{\left(d\right)}};\left(1\right)^{C+D+1}x]={\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{\left(c_1\right)_n\mathrm{}\left(c_C\right)_n}{\left(d_1\right)_n\mathrm{}\left(d_D\right)_n}}{\displaystyle \frac{x^n}{n!}}\left(1\right)^{n\left(C+D+1\right)}`$

namely

$$m_h\left(x\right)=\underset{\mu =1}{\overset{A}{}}\mathrm{\Gamma }\left[\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\left(a\right)^{}a_\mu }{\left(b\right)a_\mu }\right]_BF_{A1}[\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{1+a_\mu \left(b\right)}{1+a_\mu \left(a\right)^{}};\left(1\right)^{A+B}x]x^{a_\mu }$$
(29)
where $`\left(a\right)^{}a_\mu `$ and $`\left(a\right)^{}\left(a\right)^{}a_\mu 1`$ stand for the sequences $`a_1a_\mu ,\mathrm{},a_Aa_\mu ,`$ and $`a_1a_\mu 1,\mathrm{},a_Aa_\mu 1`$ with the exclusion the $`\mu `$-th term.

## V Expansion of statistical states

The same reasons that led  to express arbitrary states and operators in term of coherent states, suggest that we develop expansions in terms of NCS as well.

Following  we introduce for a statistical state the deformed quantum linear functional

$$F_h\left[\alpha \right]=Tr\left\{\widehat{\rho }𝒟_h\left(\alpha \right)\right\}=\underset{m}{}\rho _{mn}n|\phi _m,\alpha ,h$$
(30)
In particular for a diagonal density matrix $`F_h\left[\alpha \right]`$ reduces to the standard $`F\left[\alpha \right].`$

Using the unity resolution (23) $`F_h\left[\alpha \right]`$ may be rewritten as

$$F_h\left[\alpha \right]=e^{\frac{\alpha \alpha }{2}}\mathrm{exp}\left(\alpha z^{}\alpha ^{}z\right)\rho _{h,A}\left(z\right)d^2z$$
(31)
where

$`\rho _{h,A}\left(z\right)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{e^{zz^{}}}{N_{z,h}N_{z,h^1}}}Tr\left\{\widehat{\rho }|z,hz,h^1|\right\}`$ (32)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi }}z\left|\widehat{\rho }_h\right|z`$ (33)
with

$`\widehat{\rho }_h=d_h^1\widehat{\rho }d_h`$

the deformed density operator. In other words $`\rho _{h,A}\left(z\right)`$ stands for the generalized distribution function of the deformed density matrix $`d_h^1\widehat{\rho }d_h`$.

For extending the definition of the characteristic functional $`F\left[\alpha \right]=Tr\left\{\widehat{\rho }D\left(\alpha \right)\right\}`$ to a deformed oscillator we pay the penalty of loosing some properties of $`\rho _A\left(z\right)`$. In fact, $`\rho _{h,A}\left(z\right)`$ may take in general positive and negative values. It can be regarded as a generalized probability distribution function as long as the association between operators and functions is based on antinormal ordering,

$$Tr\left\{\widehat{\rho }G_A(A,A_h^{})\right\}=\rho _{h,A}\left(z\right)G_A(z,z^{})d^2z$$
(34)
In particular, for a diagonal density matrix $`\rho _{h,A}\left(z\right)=\rho _A\left(z\right)`$ while for $`\widehat{\rho }=|w,hw,h|`$

$`\rho _{h,A}\left(z\right)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{E_h\left(w^{}z\right)}{E_h\left(w^{}w\right)}}\mathrm{exp}\left[z^{}\left(wz\right)\right]`$

Consequently, the transformation (31) applies if there exists the Fourier transform of $`\mathrm{exp}\left[z^{}\left(wz\right)\right]E_h\left(w^{}z\right)`$. Analogously, working with $`\widehat{\rho }=|w,h^1w,h^1|`$ we arrive at the same conclusion for $`\mathrm{exp}\left[z^{}\left(wz\right)\right]E_{h^1}\left(w^{}z\right)`$. This in turn implies that $`E_{h^1}\left(w^{}z\right)`$ and $`E_h\left(w^{}z\right)`$ cannot grow at infinity as quickly as $`\mathrm{exp}\left(zz^{}\right)`$.

We recall that in the coherent states representation of a bounded operator $`\widehat{O}`$, the vanishing of $`z\left|\widehat{O}\right|z=0`$ in a domain of the complex plane of finite area implies the vanishing of $`\widehat{O}`$ itself (see Refs. ). Since $`d_h`$ has been assumed non singular the same theorem holds true for $`z\left|\widehat{O}_h\right|z`$, so that two deformed density matrices having the same function $`\rho _{h,A}\left(z\right)`$ over some area of $`z`$, must coincide. In conclusion, Eq. (33) establishes a one-to-one correspondence between the operator $`\widehat{\rho }`$ and the function $`\rho _{h,A}\left(z\right)`$.

When the deformation admits the unity resolution (24) a density matrix can be represented in several cases by a P-representation,

$$\widehat{\rho }=P_h\left(\alpha \right)\alpha ,h\alpha ,h𝑑\mu $$
(35)
in which $`P_h\left(\alpha \right)`$ can be regarded as a generalized probability distribution function as long as the association between operators and functions is based on normal ordering,

$$Tr\left\{\widehat{\rho }G_N(A^{},A)\right\}=P_h\left(\alpha \right)G_N(\alpha ,\alpha ^{})𝑑\mu $$
(36)
When $`\widehat{\rho }`$ is represented in the form (35) the master equation of $`\widehat{\rho }`$ can be in many cases transformed in a master equation for $`P_h.`$ This circumstance becomes particularly valuable in the study of the decay of an excited trapped ion toward the fundamental dark state. In this case we are faced for example with operators of the form

$`A^{}\widehat{\rho }`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle P\left(\alpha \right)m_h\left(\alpha \alpha ^{}\right)h^2\left(\alpha \frac{}{\alpha }\right)\frac{}{\alpha }\alpha \alpha d^2\alpha }`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \alpha \alpha \frac{}{\alpha }h^2\left(1\alpha \frac{}{\alpha }\right)\left\{P\left(\alpha \right)m_h\left(\alpha \alpha ^{}\right)\right\}d^2\alpha }`$
use having been made of Eq. $`\left(\text{15}\right).`$ Expanding $`P\left(\alpha \right)m_h\left(\alpha \alpha ^{}\right)`$ in power series of $`\alpha ^m\left(\alpha ^{}\right)^n`$ we see that

$`{\displaystyle \frac{}{\alpha }}h^2\left(1\alpha {\displaystyle \frac{}{\alpha }}\right)\alpha ^m\left(\alpha ^{}\right)^n=mh^2\left(1m\right)\alpha ^{m1}\left(\alpha ^{}\right)^n`$

## VI Nonlinear coherent states on a circle

The above definition of NCS states (we will call them of order 1) can be extended to the eigenstates of the operators $`A_{N+1}`$ of a more general form $`A_{N+1}=a^{N+1}h\left(\widehat{n}\right)`$  and so the equation

$`A_{N+1}|\alpha ,h,N+1,q=\alpha |\alpha ,h,N+1,q`$

with $`N>0`$ is considered.

The eigenstate belonging to the eigenvalue $`\alpha `$ is $`N+1`$–fold degenerate and $`q`$ is an integer ranging from 0 to $`N`$. In terms of Fock states we have

$$\alpha |\alpha ,h,N+1,q=N_{\alpha ,h,q}\underset{l=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{\alpha ^{l\left(N+1\right)+q}}{\sqrt{\left(l\left(N+1\right)+q\right)!}\left[h\left(l\left(N+1\right)+q\right)\right]!}|l\left(N+1\right)+q$$
(37)
with the normalization factor

$`\left|N_{\alpha ,h,q}\right|^2={\displaystyle \underset{l=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{\left|\alpha \right|^{2l\left(N+1\right)+2q}}{\left(l\left(N+1\right)+q\right)!\left(\left[h\left(l\left(N+1\right)+q\right)\right]!\right)^2}}`$

where

$`\left[h\left(l\left(N+1\right)+q\right)\right]!=h\left(q\right)h\left(N+1+q\right)\mathrm{}h\left(l\left(N+1\right)+q\right).`$

Such a state can also be expressed as a sum of NCS (see Eq.13). In facts, by introducing the function $`h^{\left(N+1\right)}\left(n\right)`$ defined recursively by

$`h^{\left(N+1\right)}\left(l\left(N+1\right)+q\right)={\displaystyle \frac{h\left(q1\right)\left[h\left(l\left(N+1\right)+q\right)\right]!}{h\left(q\right)\left[h\left(l\left(N+1\right)+q1\right)\right]!}}h^{\left(N+1\right)}\left(q\right)`$

we have also

$$|\alpha ,h,N+1,q=N_{\alpha ,h,q}^{}\underset{k=0}{\overset{N}{}}\left(ϵ^{}\right)^{qk}|\alpha ϵ^k,h^{\left(N+1\right)}$$
(38)
with $`ϵ=\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{i2\pi }{N+1}\right)`$ and $`N_{\alpha ,h,q}^{}`$ a normalization coefficient.

We have obtained that a NCS coherent state of order $`N+1`$ is decomposed in the sum of $`N+1`$ first order NCS of complex amplitudes $`\alpha ,`$ $`\alpha ϵ^q,\mathrm{},\alpha \left(ϵ^q\right)^N`$ distributed uniformly on a circle. These states, referred to as ”crystallized cats” in Ref. , were introduced for the linear oscillator  in the attempt to generalize the optical Schrödinger cats of harmonic oscillators.

Using the deformed displacement operator we have also

$`|\alpha ,h,N+1,q=N_{\alpha ,h,q}^{}\left({\displaystyle \underset{k=0}{\overset{N}{}}}\left(ϵ^{}\right)^{qk}𝒟_{h^{\left(N+1\right)}}\left(\alpha ϵ^k\right)\right)|0`$

In conclusion, the Hilbert space is the direct sum of $`N+1`$ spaces $`=_0_1\mathrm{}_N`$, $`\left(q=0,1,\mathrm{}N\right)`$, each of them having for basis the Fock states $`|\mathrm{}\left(N+1\right)+q`$, as $`l(0,\mathrm{}\mathrm{}).`$

For $`N=1`$ the fundamental states of $`_0`$ and $`_1`$ are respectively the even and odd Schrödinger cats. It will be shown in a following paper that when the radiative damping is negligible, the initial density matrix separate in the product of two matrices evolving respectively toward the even and odd Schrödinger cats.

### A Wigner function

The Wigner function  relative to these states on a circle can be shown to be given for a generic integer $`N`$ by

$`W_{N+1}(\stackrel{~}{q},\stackrel{~}{p})=N_{\alpha ,h_{N+1},q}^2e^{\left|q+ip\right|^2}{\displaystyle \underset{ll^{}}{}}\left(\sqrt{2}\left(\stackrel{~}{q}i\stackrel{~}{p}\right)\right)^{\left(l^{}l\right)\left(N+1\right)}`$ (39)
$`\times `$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\left(\alpha \right)^{l\left(N+1\right)+q}}{\left[h_{N+1}\left(l\left(N+1\right)+q\right)\right]!}}{\displaystyle \frac{\left(\alpha ^{}\right)^{l^{}\left(N+1\right)+q}}{\left[h_{N+1}\left(l^{}\left(N+1\right)+q\right)\right]!}}{\displaystyle \frac{L_{l\left(N+1\right)+q}^{\left(l^{}l\right)\left(N+1\right)}\left(2\left(\stackrel{~}{q}^2+\stackrel{~}{p}^2\right)\right)}{\left[l^{}\left(N+1\right)+q\right]!}}`$ (40)
Analogously for the Husimi–Kano  Q-function $`Q_{N+1,q}(\stackrel{~}{q},\stackrel{~}{p})=\left|\frac{\stackrel{~}{q}+i\stackrel{~}{p}}{\sqrt{2}}|\alpha ,q,h_{N+1}\right|^2`$

$$Q_{N+1,q}(\stackrel{~}{q},\stackrel{~}{p})=N_{\alpha ,h_{N+1},q}^2e^{\frac{\stackrel{~}{q}^2+\stackrel{~}{p}^2}{2}}\left|\underset{l=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{\left(\alpha \frac{\stackrel{~}{q}i\stackrel{~}{p}}{\sqrt{2}}\right)^{l\left(N+1\right)+q}}{\left[l\left(N+1\right)+q\right]!\left[h_{N+1}\left(l\left(N+1\right)+q\right)\right]!}\right|^2.$$
(41)
with $`|\frac{\stackrel{~}{q}+i\stackrel{~}{p}}{\sqrt{2}}`$ a coherent-state vector.

For $`N=1`$ these states reduce to even $`\left(q=0\right)`$ and odd $`\left(q=1\right)`$ Schrödinger cats . In Ref.  is examined the squeezing and antibunching effects by using the function $`h_1(n)`$ introduced in  for the NCS. We will see in the following (see Eq. (50)) that the nonlinear cats representing the dark state of a trapped ion are properly described by the deformation $`h_2\left(n\right)=L_{n2}^2\left(\eta ^2\right)/[n\left(n1\right)L_{n2}\left(\eta ^2\right)]`$.

In Fig. 1 we show the Wigner functions for nonlinear even Schrödinger cats of amplitude $`\alpha =3.5`$ (real) and different parameters $`\eta `$. In the linear case ($`\eta =0`$ Fig. 1-a) the quantum interference is localized around the origin. The two coherent gaussian peaks are circularly shaped.

For increasing $`\eta `$ the nonlinearity flattens the interference pattern while the central interference fringes, particularly their negative part, become more evident. This is essentially due to a reshaping of the coherent contribution peak from a gaussian-like nearly circular shape to an elliptical one with minor axis parallel to the direction connecting the two coherent peaks. These come closer to the origin and the region where the Wigner function is non-zero shrinks notably.

A further increase in $`\eta `$ causes the progressive coming closer and closer of the main peaks, while the interference fringes become more localized. For higher $`\eta `$ there are some interference fringes spreading over the two coherent peaks. This phenomenon is dominant for very high $`\eta `$ values (Fig. 1 b,c,d $`\eta =0.5`$) where the main peaks come into the interference region and the coherent character of the two states forming the cat is no more distinguishable. The interference area become larger than in the linear case and a circular symmetry of the interference pattern become evident.

In Fig. 2 we present two NCS on a circle formed by the superposition of 3 and 4 NCS ($`\alpha =3.5`$ and $`\eta =0.33`$).

## VII Dark states

Cirac et al  first proposed in 1993 a scheme for preparing coherent squeezed states of motion in an ion trap based on the multichromatic excitation of a trapped ion. Using two waves with beat frequency equal to twice the trap frequency a ”dark resonance” appears in the fluorescence emitted by the ion, the ion is placed in a squeezed state. Similar ”dark states” produced by a bichromatic field with beat frequency equal to the trap frequency were studied by Vogel et al. in 1996  and identified as nonlinear coherent states.

We will consider in the following a beat frequency which is a generic multiple of the trap frequency $`\nu `$, and the ion dark state is described by a generalized coherent state on a circle. We will consider a bichromatic field of the type

$$A_{b,N+1}=f_{N+1}\left(\widehat{n}\right)a^{N+1}\alpha _{N+1}f_0\left(\widehat{n}\right).$$
(42)
for which the dark state satisfies the equation

$`\left(a^{N+1}{\displaystyle \frac{f_{N+1}\left(\widehat{n}N1\right)}{f_0\left(\widehat{n}N1\right)}}\alpha _{N+1}\right)|\psi _{dark}=0.`$

that is (see Eq. (37))

$`|\psi _{dark}=|\alpha _{N+1},h_{N+1},N+1,q`$

with

$$h_{N+1}(\widehat{n};\eta ^2)=\left(N+1\right)!\frac{L_{\widehat{n}N1}^{N+1}}{\left(\widehat{n}N\right)_{N+1}L_{\widehat{n}N1}}$$
(43)
and

$`\alpha _{N+1}={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_0}{\mathrm{\Omega }_{N+1}}}{\displaystyle \frac{\left(N+1\right)!}{\left(i\eta \right)^{N+1}}}`$

In short the dark state is the superposition of $`N+1`$ nonlinear coherent states which are equidistantly separated from each other along a circle with modulation factor $`ϵ^k=\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{2\pi ik}{N+1}\right)`$.

In particular

$`h_1(\widehat{n};\eta ^2)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{L_{\widehat{n}1}^1}{\widehat{n}L_{\widehat{n}1}}}={\displaystyle \frac{L_{\widehat{n}1}L_{\widehat{n}}}{\eta ^2L_{\widehat{n}1}}}`$ (44)
$`h_2(\widehat{n};\eta ^2)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2L_{\widehat{n}2}^2}{\widehat{n}\left(\widehat{n}1\right)L_{\widehat{n}2}}}`$ (45)
and

$`\alpha _1=i{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_0}{\mathrm{\Omega }_1}},\alpha _2={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_0}{\mathrm{\Omega }_2}}{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\eta ^2}}`$

Expressing the Laguerre polynomials by their asymptotic expression $`\sqrt{n\eta ^2}h_1(n;\eta ^2)`$ tends, for $`n\mathrm{}`$, to a function depending on the product $`n\eta ^2`$ only,

$$\sqrt{n\eta ^2}h_1(n;\eta ^2)=\mathrm{tan}\left(2\sqrt{n\eta ^2}\frac{\pi }{4}\right)+O\left(n^{3/4}\right)$$
(46)
Note the oscillating behavior of the eigenvalues $`E\left(n\right)\mathrm{tan}^2\left(2\sqrt{n\eta ^2}\frac{\pi }{4}\right)/\eta ^2`$. This circumstance implies that each eigenstate is encompassed by an infinite countable set of eigenstates of slightly different energies. For exceptional values of $`\eta `$ some eigenvalues can vanish. In these cases the series representation of the relative NCS looses its meaning. The behavior of $`E\left(n\right)`$ as $`n\mathrm{}`$ has strong implication on the resolution of unity, as we will see in the following.

As a consequence of (46), the logarithm of the factorial $`\left[h_1^2(n,\eta ^2)\right]!n!`$ times $`\eta ^{2n}`$ tends asymptotically to

$`\mathrm{log}(\left[h_1^2(n;\eta ^2)\right]!n!\eta ^{2n})\stackrel{n\mathrm{}}{}{\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{8\eta ^2}}{\displaystyle ^{\left(\frac{8}{\pi }\right)^2n\eta ^2}}\mathrm{log}\left[\mathrm{tan}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{4}}(\sqrt{z}1)\right)\right]^2dz+const`$
$`\stackrel{n\mathrm{}}{}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\eta ^2}}u\left(\sqrt{n\eta ^2}\right)+const`$
where $`u\left(x\right)`$ is an oscillating entire function

$`u\left(x\right)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\pi }}\left(4x\mathrm{}\left[Li_2\left(e^{i\phi }\right)+Li_2\left(e^{i\phi }\right)\right]+\mathrm{}\left[Li_3\left(e^{i\phi }\right)Li_3\left(e^{i\phi }\right)\right]\right)`$ (47)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4}{\pi }}{\displaystyle \underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\left(1\right)^k{\displaystyle \frac{4x\left(2k+1\right)1}{\left(2k+1\right)^3}}\mathrm{cos}\left[\left(2k+1\right)4x\right]`$ (48)
with $`Li_n\left(z\right)=_{k=1}^{\mathrm{}}z^k/k^n`$ the polylogarithm function. According to (48) $`\mathrm{log}\left(\left[h_1^2(n,\eta ^2)\right]!n!\eta ^{2n}\right)`$ is an oscillating function of $`\sqrt{n\eta ^2}`$, with the envelope expanding proportionally to $`\sqrt{n\eta ^2}`$, as shown in Fig. 3. This behavior is confirmed by the exact expressions of $`\mathrm{log}\left(\left[h_1^2(n,\eta ^2)\right]!n!\eta ^{2n}\right)`$ plotted in Fig. 4 versus $`n`$ for $`\eta ^2=0.01,0.02,0.1`$ and $`0.2`$.

In particular there exists a countable infinite sequence of values of $`n\eta ^2`$ for which $`\left[h_1^2(n,\eta ^2)\right]!n!\eta ^{2n}`$ is close to $`\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{16\sqrt{n}}{\pi \eta }\right)`$, so that the NCS can be normalized only for $`\left|\alpha \eta \right|`$ less than one. In other words, contrarily to the linear coherent states the NCS relative to a trapped ion fill the open circle $`1/\eta `$ in the complex plane. As $`\eta 0`$ the domain of existence tends to the whole complex plane, as for the linear coherent states. While these states are normalized for $`\alpha \eta `$ inside the unit circle, the scalar product of $`|\alpha _1,h`$ and $`|\alpha _2,h`$ is defined even if one the numbers $`\alpha _1`$or $`\alpha _2`$ has an arbitrary modulus as long as the product of the moduli is less than $`1/\eta ^2`$. A similar situation occurs for the harmonious states  described by the deformation function $`h\left(n\right)=1/\sqrt{n}`$.

For generic combinations of vibrational excitation levels and parameter $`\eta ^2`$ the ion rovibronic dynamics fully displays its nonlinear character. An example of this feature has been seen above in connection with the discussion of the Wigner functions of some nonlinear Schrödinger cats and states on a circle of order 3 and 4.

### A Unity resolution

Being these NCS restricted to values of $`\alpha `$ such that $`\left|\alpha \eta \right|<1`$ the Mellin transform (26) reduces to the single-sided Laplace transform

$`g\left(s\right)=\underset{\epsilon 0}{lim}{\displaystyle _\epsilon ^{\mathrm{}}}m_h\left(\eta ^2e^t\right)e^{st}𝑑t`$

Then, $`g\left(s\right)`$ is the right-sided Laplace transform of the distribution $`m_h\left(\eta ^2e^t\right)`$ and tends asymptotically to the analytic function $`\mathrm{exp}\left[\eta ^2v\left(\sqrt{s\eta ^2}\right)\right]`$ of $`s`$ in the half-plane $`Re`$ $`s>1`$ and is bounded according to

$`g\left(s\right)Ke^{TRes}`$

with $`T`$ a negative infinitesimally small constant and $`K`$ a constant. Consequently $`m_h`$ is a distribution with support bounded on the left at $`t=T<0`$ (see Ref. , corollary 8.4-1a.). This means that it is necessary to include in the unity resolution un-normalizable states of amplitude $`\left|\alpha \right|>\eta ^1`$.

### B Approximate deformations

The difficulties in dealing with this deformation can be overcome by using approximate deformations. This is justified by the circumstance that in laser cooling experiments one deals with ions occupying a finite number of vibrational levels.

In particular when the parameter $`\eta ^2`$ is not very large the deformations $`h_{1,2}\left(n\right)`$ can be approximated by a few terms of the series expansion

$`h_1(\widehat{n};\eta ^2)`$ $`=`$ $`1+{\displaystyle \frac{\widehat{n}1}{2}}\eta ^2+{\displaystyle \frac{2\widehat{n}^23\widehat{n}+1}{6}}\eta ^4+{\displaystyle \frac{11\widehat{n}^322\widehat{n}^2+13\widehat{n}2}{48}}\eta ^6+\mathrm{}`$ (49)
$`h_2(\widehat{n};\eta ^2)`$ $`=`$ $`1+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{3}}\left(\widehat{n}2\right)\eta ^2+{\displaystyle \frac{11\widehat{n}^239\widehat{n}+34}{24}}\eta ^4+{\displaystyle \frac{19\widehat{n}^396\widehat{n}^2+159\widehat{n}86}{60}}\eta ^6+\mathrm{}`$ (50)
Approximating the deformation $`h_1\left(n\right)`$ by $`1+\frac{\widehat{n}1}{2}\eta ^2`$ we have that $`m_{\frac{\eta ^2}{2}h_1}\left(x\right)`$ coincides with the Mellin antitransform of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(s\right)\mathrm{\Gamma }^2\left(\frac{2}{\eta ^2}+s1\right)`$. Before using Eq. (29) with $`A=3`$, $`B=0`$ and $`a_1=0`$, $`a_2=a_3=\frac{2}{\eta ^2}1`$, we have to remove the degeneracy $`a_2=a_3`$ by evaluating Eq.(29) for $`a_2a_3=\epsilon `$ and letting $`\epsilon 0`$. Since $`lim_{\epsilon 0}\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(\epsilon \right)+\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(\epsilon \right)2\mathrm{sinh}\left(\gamma \epsilon \right)/\epsilon =2\gamma `$ with $`\gamma =0.57721`$ the Euler’s constant, then

$`a_2^2m_{h_1}\left(x\right)=\mathrm{\Gamma }^2\left[a_2\right]_0F_2[;1a_{2,}1a_2;{\displaystyle \frac{x}{a_2^2}}]2\gamma \mathrm{\Gamma }[a_2]\mathrm{\Gamma }\left[2a_2\right]_0F_2[;1,1+a;{\displaystyle \frac{x}{a_2^2}}]\left({\displaystyle \frac{x}{a_2^2}}\right)^{a_2}`$

At the same time the h-exponential reads

$`E_h\left(v\right)=_0F_3[;1,a_2+1,a_2+1;{\displaystyle \frac{v}{a_2^2}}]`$

Expanding the generalized factorial $`\left[h_1(\widehat{n},\eta ^2)\right]!`$ to the second order in $`\eta ^2`$ the NCS $`|\alpha ,h_1`$ can be expressed as a combination of excited coherent states

$`|\alpha ,h_1=\left(1+\eta ^2{\displaystyle \frac{\eta ^4}{12}}\right)|\alpha +\left({\displaystyle \frac{\eta ^2}{2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{7\eta ^4}{72}}\right)\alpha |\alpha ,1+\left({\displaystyle \frac{\eta ^2}{2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\eta ^4}{24}}\right)\alpha ^2|\alpha ,2{\displaystyle \frac{5\eta ^4}{36}}\alpha ^3|\alpha ,3+O\left(\eta ^6\right)`$

A better approximation can be obtained by representing the Laguerre polynomials $`L_{n1}\left(\eta ^2\right)`$ by a finite sum of powers of $`\eta ^2,`$

$`L_n\left(\eta ^2\right){\displaystyle \underset{k=0}{\overset{K}{}}}\left(1\right)^k\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n}{k}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{\eta ^{2k}}{k!}}=P_K\left(n\right)`$

so that $`h_1(n;\eta ^2)`$ (see Eq. (45)) can be replaced by a rational function

$$h_{A,B}\left(n\right)=\frac{P_{A+1}\left(n1\right)P_{A+1}\left(n\right)}{\eta ^2P_B\left(n1\right)}=\gamma \frac{_{i=1}^A\left(n+a_i\right)}{_{j=1}^B\left(n+b_j\right)}$$
(51)
For using the characteristic function $`\rho _{h,A}`$ we should choose $`A=B`$, while for introducing the P-representation $`AB`$. In particular, Cirac et al  and Blockley et al  have expanded the exponential of Eq. (3) up to the second order in $`\eta `$, their case corresponds to $`A=B=4`$.

If the roots $`a_i`$ and $`b_i`$ are not integer we have (cf. Eq. (28))

$`\left[h_{AB}\left(s\right)\right]!=\gamma ^{s1}\mathrm{\Gamma }^1\left[{\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\left(a\right)}{\left(b\right)}}\right]\mathrm{\Gamma }\left[{\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\left(a\right)+s}{\left(b\right)+s}}\right]`$

For this class of deformations the measure is given by the combination of the generalized hypergeometric functions of Eq. (27), subject to the precaution of removing the degeneracy of the coefficients $`a_i,b_i`$.

In particular for $`A=B=1`$ the Husimi–Kano Q-function (41) relative to the state $`|z,h`$ reduces to

$`Q_1(w)e^{\left|wz\right|^2/2}\left|\varpi ^\nu J_\nu \left(\varpi \right)\right|^2_{\left|\varpi \right|\mathrm{}}Ce^{\left|wz\right|^2/2}\left[1+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{cot}\left(\nu \pi \right)}{2}}\left(\zeta w^{2\nu }+\zeta ^{}w^{2\nu }\right)\right]`$

with $`\nu =\frac{1}{\eta ^2}+\frac{1}{2}`$, $`\varpi =\frac{i}{2}zw^{}`$ and $`\zeta =\left(i\frac{ez}{4\nu }\right)^{2\nu }`$. Consequently, the projector $`|z,hz,h|`$ is represented in terms of the undeformed coherent states by a P-representation containing derivatives of the Dirac function of the very high order $`\nu `$. This confirms the advantage of using the representation (35).

For a finite rank density matrix $`m_h\left(x\right)`$ can be represented by a finite combination of Laguerre polynomials

$$m_h\left(x\right)=e^x\underset{n=0}{\overset{n_{\mathrm{max}}}{}}m_nL_n\left(x\right)$$
(52)
Imposing the condition (25) for $`0nn_{\mathrm{max}}`$ yields

$`m_n={\displaystyle \underset{m}{}}\left(1\right)^m\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n}{m}}\right)\left(\left[h\left(m\right)\right]!\right)^2`$

In Fig. 5 we have plotted these approximate measure functions for different values of $`\eta ^2(=0.015,0.0156,0.0158,0.016)`$, representing density operators relative to ions excited up to the level $`n=50`$. For these values of $`\eta ^2`$ the inclusion of a larger number of terms $`\left(n>50\right)`$ would lead to measures taking negative values.

## VIII Conclusions

The vibrational steady states of ions placed in a parabolic trap and driven by bichromatic fields detuned by multiples of the vibrational frequency provide a class of realizations of the nonlinear version of the so-called coherent states on a circle. The most well known example is that of the nonlinear Schrödinger cat states. As for the linear case also these states can be decomposed into finite sums of nonlinear coherent states, which can be considered as the building blocks of the vibrational wavefunctions of systems driven by laser fields detuned by multiples of the vibrational frequency.

This class of states is well described by the Wigner function, which has been computed for states on a circle of degree two (cats), three and four. The relative patterns show a dramatic dependence on the Lamb-Dicke parameter $`\eta `$, which measures the degree of departure from the linear case. This behavior is due to the irregular dependence of the ion deformation function on the Fock state index n.

With the aim of investigating the possibility of extending some mathematical tools of the linear coherent state theory to NCS it has been introduced a deformed displacement operator $`𝒟_h\left(\alpha \right)`$, which in analogy with the linear one generates the NCS $`|\alpha ,h`$ by displacing the Fock vacuum state $`\left(|\alpha ,h=𝒟_h\left(\alpha \right)|0\right)`$. The penalty paid for this extension is the loss of the unitarity. However, it allows the construction of a linear functional, which can be used for representing density operators by means of a generalized probability distribution function $`\rho _{A,h}\left(z\right)`$.

The peculiarities of NCS connected with trapped ions become evident when the deformation factorial is analyzed for very large $`n`$. The weight of the n-th Fock state contributing to a NCS exhibits an almost periodic behavior by taking very large and very small values of the order of $`e^{\pm C\sqrt{n\eta ^2}}`$. Consequently, the NCS can be normalized only for $`\alpha `$ filling the open circle $`1/\eta `$ in the complex $`\alpha `$-plane. In addition, this behavior prevents the existence of a regular measure for resolving the unity. These pathologies mark the difference with q-oscillators whose deformation function is an increasing function of $`n`$.

For extending to these NCS the P-representation formalism it is necessary to replace the deformation with an approximate one, for which there exists a measure. These approximate NCS can be constructed in different ways. Two examples are provided. In the first case the deformation is represented by a rational function of the occupation number, obtained by truncating the Laguerre polynomials to some order in $`\eta ^2`$. By increasing the degree of these rational functions it is possible to represent accurately the actual deformation for occupation numbers extending up to infinity. The respective measures are the Mellin antitransforms of Gamma function products $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\left[\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\left(a\right)}{\left(b\right)}\right]`$ and are given by combinations of generalized hypergeometric functions. In the other case the measure is represented by a finite combination of Laguerre polynomials. In this way it is possible to represent exactly the factorials up to a given level $`n`$, although it is not possible to obtain in general a positive definite measure.

The NCS can provide a basis for studying the trapped ion evolution by representing the statistical expectation values of either antinormal $`G_A(A,A_h^{})`$ or normal $`G_N(A,A_h^{})`$products of $`A`$ and $`A_h^{}`$ as integrals of the probability distributions $`\rho _{h,A}\left(z\right)`$ or $`P_h\left(z\right)`$ times the classical functions $`G_A(z,z^{})`$ and $`G_N(z,z^{})`$. Another possibility consists in transforming the density matrix master equation in an equivalent equation for the P-representation. This problem will be addressed in a more systematic way in a forthcoming paper.

Before concluding, it is remarkable that the deformation used for the q-oscillators, the ancestors of the NCS, is based on the same transformation used by Heine  a century ago for generalizing the Gauss hypergeometric function.

## Acknowledgments

V.I.M. thanks the University of Naples “Federico II” for the kind hospitality and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research for the partial support under Project No. 99-02-17753.

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Figure captions

Fig. 1: Top and side views of the Wigner function (Eq. 39) relative to linear (a) and nonlinear (b,c,d) even Schrödinger cat states for different values of $`\alpha =3.5`$ (real) and two different values of $`\eta `$. (a) $`\eta =0`$ (linear case), the two coherent peaks are almost circularly shaped the interference pattern is axially symmetric along the axis defined by the center of the coherent peaks; (b – top-view, c – side-view and d – air-view) $`\eta =0.5`$, the gaussian peaks are no more distinguishable from the circularly symmetric interference pattern.

Fig. 2: Top view of the Wigner function (Eq. 39) for 3 and 4 NCS states sitting on the circle. $`\alpha =3.5`$ (real) and $`\eta =0.33`$. This value of the nonlinearity $`\eta `$ leads to a smooth reshaping of the coherent peaks from a nearly circular shape to an elliptic one.

Fig. 3 Asymptotic expression of $`u\left(\sqrt{z}\right)`$ versus $`z`$ (see Eq. (48))

Fig. 4 $`\mathrm{log}\left(\left[h_1^2(n,\eta ^2)\right]!n!\eta ^{2n}\right)`$ versus $`n`$ for $`\eta ^2=0.01`$ (a),$`0.02`$ (b)$`,0.1`$ (c) and $`0.2`$ (d).

Fig. 5 Measure $`m_h\left(x\right)`$ versus x obtained as a combination of 50 Laguerre polynomials (Eq. (52)) and four different values of $`\eta ^2=0.015,0.0156,0.0158,0`$.$`016`$