| Summary: | TheWigner formalism in the Heisenberg picture constitutes a bridge that connects Quantum<br />Optics to Stochastic Optics. The vacuum field appears explicitly in the formalism, and the wavelike<br />aspects of light are emphasised. In addition, the zeropoint intensity as a threshold for detection is a<br />common denominator in both theories. In this paper, after summarising the basic rules of the Wigner<br />approach and its application to parametric down-conversion, some new results are presented that<br />delve into the physical meaning of the zeropoint field in optical quantum communication. Specifically,<br />the relationship between Bell-state distinguishability and the number of sets of zeropoint modes<br />that take part in the experiment is analysed in terms of the coupling between the phases of the<br />different fields involved and the subtraction of the zeropoint intensity at the detectors. Additionally,<br />the connection between the compatibility theorem in quantum cryptography and zeropoint field<br />is stressed.
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