The stellar decomposition of Gaussian quantum states

Quantum 10, 1971 (2026).

https://doi.org/10.22331/q-2026-01-19-1971

We introduce the $textit{stellar decomposition}$, a novel method for characterizing non-Gaussian states produced by photon-counting measurements on Gaussian states. Given an $(m+n)$-mode Gaussian state $G$, we express it as an $(m+n)$-mode “Gaussian core state” $G_{mathrm{core}}$ followed by an $m$-mode Gaussian transformation $T$ that only acts on the first $m$ modes. The defining property of the Gaussian core state $G_{mathrm{core}}$ is that measuring the last $n$ of its modes in the photon-number basis leaves the first $m$ modes on a finite Fock support, i.e. a core state. Since $T$ is measurement-independent and $G_{mathrm{core}}$ has an exact and finite Fock representation, this decomposition exactly describes all non-Gaussian states obtainable by projecting $n$ modes of $G$ onto the Fock basis. For pure states we prove that a physical pair $(G_{mathrm{core}}, T)$ always exists with $G_{mathrm{core}}$ pure and $T$ unitary. For mixed states, we establish necessary and sufficient conditions for $(G_{mathrm{core}}, T)$ to be a Gaussian mixed state and a Gaussian channel. We also develop a semidefinite program to extract the “largest” possible Gaussian channel when these conditions fail. Finally, we present a formal stellar decomposition for generic operators, which is useful in simulations where the only requirement is that the two parts contract back to the original operator. The stellar decomposition leads to practical bounds on achievable state quality in photonic circuits and for GKP state generation in particular. Our results are based on a new characterization of Gaussian completely positive maps in the Bargmann picture, which may be of independent interest.