Dynamics of nonclassicality in photon-loss channel

When radiation fields propagate through mediums and interact with environments, the quantum characteristics of the field states usually undergo deterioration, in particular, the nonclassicality (quantumness) often decays due to photon loss. To address this issue in a quantitative way, we invoke a nonclassicality quantifier based on the Wigner-Yanase skew information and explore the dynamics of nonclassicality in the photon-loss channel for several typical initial states. We illustrate pictorially the decoherence and quantum to classical transition in the photon-loss channel from an informational perspective. It is remarkable that for certain initial states with small average photon numbers, the nonclassicality, as quantified in terms of the Wigner-Yanase skew information, may exhibit nonmonotonic behavior (revival), as compared with the general case of monotonic decaying of nonclassicality. (paper)