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arXiv:1511.06122

Application of RWA leads to false conclusions about the transition probability for the near or exact resonance

Dafa Li, Yanjun Hao

Published Nov 19, 2015• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Rotating wave approximation (RWA) plays a key rule in quantum optics to solve some Schrödinger equation approximately. For example, it is well known that RWA has been used to calculate the transition probability. However, so far no one shows the validity of RWA. Recently Larson [J. Larson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 033601 (2012)] gave the first example showing that the application of RWA in the Jaynes-Cummings model may lead to false conclusions. In this paper, we analytically and numerically show that the application of RWA leads to false conclusions about the transition probability for the near or exact resonance.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1511.06122

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Rotating wave approximation (RWA) plays a key rule in quantum optics to solve some Schrödinger equation approximately. For example, it is well known that RWA has been used to calculate the transition probability. However, so far no one shows the validity of RWA. Recently Larson [J. Larson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 033601 (2012)] gave the first example showing that the application of RWA in the Jaynes-Cummings model may lead to false conclusions. In this paper, we analytically and numerically show that the application of RWA leads to false conclusions about the transition probability for the near or exact resonance.
The Jaynes-Cummings model without the rotating-wave approximation can be solved exactly by an extended Swain ansatz with conserved parity. Analytical approximations are then performed at different levels. The well-known rotating-wave approximation (RWA) is naturally covered in the present zeroth- and first-order approximations. A first-order correction to the RWA can be obtained in a second-order approximation, by which the effect of the counter-rotating-wave term emerges clearly. Concise analytical expressions are given explicitly and can be applicable up to the ultrastrong-coupling regime. A preliminary application to vacuum Rabi splitting is shown to be very successful.
The interaction of a nonrelativistic, ``two-level'' atom with a single-frequency, quantized electromagnetic field is usually analyzed in the dipole approximation by applying the rotating-wave approximation (RWA) to obtain the exactly solvable Jaynes-Cummings model (JCM). In this paper, it is shown that for a spin-1/2 particle, at rest in a constant magnetic field and for a system that obeys the electric dipole \ensuremath{\Delta}m=\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1 selection rules, a choice of a perturbing field that consists of circularly polarized photons can make the RWA unnecessary for the solution of the quantum-electrodynamic (QED) problem. For these cases, the only approximation necessary to obtain an exact solution of the QED problem is to neglect the spontaneous emission of photons with a sense of polarization opposite that of the perturbing field. The matrix elements corresponding to these ``virtual'' processes are independent of the number of photons n in the applied field and become relatively small, compared with those that correspond to energy-conserving processes, as n becomes large.However, a two-level system that obeys the \ensuremath{\Delta}m=0 selection rule will require the RWA in order to reduce it to the JCM, regardless of the choice of polarization of the perturbing field. For this case, the emission of the photons that do not conserve energy is an induced process that corresponds to matrix elements that increase as \ensuremath{\surd}n+1 . It is thus concluded that, provided the right choice of selection rules and polarization of the applied field is made, the JCM provides a more accurate description of some systems than the accuracy of the RWA. Furthermore, it is concluded that an experimental test of the validity of the RWA can be made by performing the same experiments on an electric dipole \ensuremath{\Delta}m=\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1 transition, first with circularly polarized light and then with linearly polarized light of the same intensity. Any difference in response of the atomic system for these two experiments can be identified with terms that are neglected in the RWA. This experimental technique may prove useful for observing the optical Bloch-Siegert shift and for investigating the failure of the RWA and the chaotic quantum behavior predicted by Milonni, Ackerhalt, and Galbraith [Phys. Rev. Lett. 50, 966 (1983)].
The Jaynes-Cummings model (JCM) is studied in the absence of the rotating-wave approximation (RWA) by a coherent-state expansion technique. In comparison with the previous paper in which the coherent-state expansion was performed only to the third order, we carry out in this paper a complete expansion to demonstrate exactly the dynamics of the JCM without the RWA. Our study gives a systematic method to solve the non-RWA problem, which would be useful in various physical systems, e.g., in a system with an ultracold trapped ion experiencing the running waves of lasers.
In this note, I introduce a mysterious approximation called the rotating wave approximation (RWA) to undergraduates or non-experts who are interested in both Mathematics and Quantum Optics.In Quantum Optics, it plays a very important role in order to obtain an analytic approximate solution of some Schrödinger equation, while it is curious from the mathematical point of view.I explain it carefully with two coherent oscillations for them and expect that they will overcome the problem in the near future.
This report presents an approach to the exact solutions of the time-dependent Jaynes-Cummings (J-C) model without the rotating wave approximation (RWA). It is shown that there is a squeezing-operator unitary transformation for relating the J-C model without RWA and the one with RWA. Thus by using an appropriate squeezing unitary transformation, the time-dependent J-C model without RWA can be transformed into the one with RWA that has been exactly solved previously, and based on this one can readily obtain the exact solutions of the time-dependent Jaynes-Cummings (J-C) model without RWA. The approach presented here also shows that we can treat these two kinds of time-dependent J-C models (both with and without RWA) in a unified way.