Classical analogs of the covariance matrix, purity, linear entropy, and von Neumann entropy

Abstract

We obtain a classical analog of the quantum covariance matrix by performing its classical approximation for any continuous quantum state, and we illustrate this approach with the anharmonic oscillator. Using this classical covariance matrix, we propose classical analogs of the purity, linear quantum entropy, and von Neumann entropy for classical integrable systems, when the quantum counterpart of the system under consideration is in a Gaussian state. As is well known, this matrix completely characterizes the purity, linear quantum entropy, and von Neumann entropy for Gaussian states. These classical analogs can be interpreted as quantities that reveal how much information from the complete system remains in the considered subsystem. To illustrate our approach, we calculate these classical analogs for three coupled harmonic oscillators and two linearly coupled oscillators. We find that they exactly reproduce the results of their quantum counterparts. In this sense, it is remarkable that we can calculate these quantities from the classical viewpoint.