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For the normalized coherent state, $⟨a⟩=\alpha$ and $⟨a^{†}⟩={\alpha }^{\ast }$. The dimensionless electric field and magnetic field optical quadratures consequently have expectation valuesThe physical electric field and magnetic field strengths have the corresponding proportionality factors and mode functions. In free evolution replace $\alpha$ by $\alpha e^{-i\omega t}$ to recover the classical oscillation.

Expanding the squared operators cancels the $a^2$ and $(a^{†}{)}^2$ terms:On the other hand, $(\alpha +{\alpha }^{\ast }{)}^2+[-i(\alpha -{\alpha }^{\ast }){]}^2=4|\alpha {|}^2$. HenceThe difference is the sum of the variances, not an extra mean field. Indeed $\mathrm{Var}(\mathcal{E})=\mathrm{Var}(\mathcal{B})=1$, independent of $\alpha$. The commutator $[\mathcal{E},\mathcal{B}]=2iI$ requires ${\sigma }_{\mathcal{E}}{\sigma }_{\mathcal{B}}\ge 1$, and the coherent state attains equality. The residual two units are the vacuum fluctuations of the two optical quadratures.

Zero-point fields are the irreducible electromagnetic field fluctuations in the vacuum state. Each normal mode has ground energy $\hslash \omega /2$. Although $⟨\mathcal{E}⟩=⟨\mathcal{B}⟩=0$ in the vacuum state, d gives $⟨{\mathcal{E}}^2⟩=⟨{\mathcal{B}}^2⟩=1$. These are quantum fluctuations, not a classical random coherent field with a known instantaneous value.

Two consequences are the Lamb shift, where coupling to the quantized electromagnetic field changes atomic energy levels, and spontaneous emission, where an excited chemical atom can emit a photon into an initially empty normal mode. In the latter process the creation operator has a nonzero matrix element $⟨1|a^{†}|0⟩=1$; stimulated-plus-spontaneous factors have the form $n+1$, which does not vanish at $n=0$. Descriptions splitting spontaneous emission into vacuum fluctuations and radiation reaction depend on operator-ordering conventions; the measurable total rate does not. Zero-point fields do not mean that the vacuum state contains a nonzero mean photon number.

A vacuum fluctuation is a nonzero quantum variance in a vacuum state. For a single electromagnetic normal mode, dimensionless optical quadratures $a+a^{†}$ and $-i(a-a^{†})$ have zero means and unit variances in the vacuum state, despite zero photon number. The mode's zero-point energy is $\hslash \omega /2$.