Download or read book The Quantum Phase Operator written by Stephen M. Barnett and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2007-04-27 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describing the phase of an electromagnetic field mode or harmonic oscillator has been an obstacle since the early days of modern quantum theory. The quantum phase operator was even more problematic with the invention of the maser and laser in the 1950s and 1960s. This problem was not solved until the Pegg-Barnett formalism was developed in the 1980