Abstract

Photoelectron counting experiments are considered. The object of the measurement is to determine parameters defining the state of a physical system characterized by a set of parameters {α_i} on the basis of an observed set of photoncount numbers {n_j}. Two types of parameters are involved: those that are to be determined, {α_i}_p (primary), and those that have impact on the estimation but are otherwise of no interest to the object of the measurement, {α_i}_s (secondary). The problem can be analyzed by investigating the relations between the conditional probabilities, p({α_i}_p,{α_i}_s|{n_j}) and p({α_i}_p|{n_j};{α_i}_s).

© 1992 Optical Society of America