Quantifying Process Nonclassicality in Bosonic Fields^*

Nonclassicality of optical states, as a key characteristic of bosonic fields, is a valuable resource for quantum information processing. We investigate the generation of nonclassicality in quantum processes from a quantitative perspective, introduce three information-theoretic measures of nonclassicality for quantum-optical processes based on the Wigner–Yanase skew information and coherent states, and illustrate their physical significance through several well-known single-mode quantum processes. (paper)