Regular phase operator and SU(1,1) coherent states of the harmonic oscillator

A new solution is proposed to the longstanding problem of describing the quantum phase of a harmonic oscillator. In terms of an 'exponential phase operator', defined by a new 'polar decomposition' of the quantized amplitude of the oscillator, a regular phase operator is constructed in the Hilbert-Fock space as a strongly convergent power series. It is shown that the eigenstates of the new 'exponential phase operator' are SU(1,1) coherent states associated to the Holstein-Primakoff realization. In terms of these eigenstates the diagonal representation of phase densities and a generalized spectral resolution of the regular phase operator are derived, which are very well suited to our intuitive pictures of classical phase-related quantities.