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arXiv:2405.10711 · Physical Review Research

Quantum phase transitions in many-dipole light-matter systems

Daniele Lamberto, Omar Di Stefano, Stephen Hughes, Franco Nori, Salvatore Savasta

Published Mar 14, 2025• 6 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

A potential phase transition between a normal ground state and a photon-condensed ground state in many-dipole light-matter systems is a topic of considerable controversy, exacerbated by conflicting no-go and counter no-go theorems and often ill-defined models. We contribute to the clarification of this long-lasting debate by analyzing two specific arrangements of atoms, including a three-dimensional cubic lattice and a cavity-embedded square lattice layer—which provides a physical model for single-mode cavity QED with coupled dipoles in the thermodynamic limit. These models are shown to significantly differ from the standard Dicke model and, in the thermodynamic limit, give rise to renormalized Hopfield models. We show that a ferroelectric phase transition can, in principle, still occur and the description of the abnormal phase beyond the critical point requires the inclusion of nonlinear terms in the Holstein-Primakoff mapping. We also demonstrate how our model agrees with recent experiments.

DOI
10.1103/physrevresearch.7.013271

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A potential phase transition between a normal ground state and a photon-condensed ground state in many-dipole light-matter systems is a topic of considerable controversy, exacerbated by conflicting no-go and counter no-go theorems and often ill-defined models. We contribute to the clarification of this long-lasting debate by analyzing two specific arrangements of atoms, including a three-dimensional cubic lattice and a cavity-embedded square lattice layer—which provides a physical model for single-mode cavity QED with coupled dipoles in the thermodynamic limit. These models are shown to significantly differ from the standard Dicke model and, in the thermodynamic limit, give rise to renormalized Hopfield models. We show that a ferroelectric phase transition can, in principle, still occur and the description of the abnormal phase beyond the critical point requires the inclusion of nonlinear terms in the Holstein-Primakoff mapping. We also demonstrate how our model agrees with recent experiments.
The long-standing debate whether the phase transition in the Dicke model can be realized with dipoles in electromagnetic fields is still an unsettled one. The well-known statement often referred to as the ``no-go theorem'' asserts that the so-called A2{A}^{2}A2 term, missing from the Dicke model, is relevant and prevents the system from undergoing a phase transition. At variance with this common belief, in this paper we prove that the Dicke model does give a proper description of the interaction of light field with the internal excitation of atoms. The phase transition and the spontaneous formation of a transverse-electric mean field cannot be excluded by principle. We point out that the proper treatment of the single-mode approximation is crucial, wherefore we present a systematic derivation of the dipole gauge inside a perfect Fabry-P\'erot cavity from first principles. Besides the impact on the debate around the Dicke phase transition, such a cleanup of the theoretical ground of cavity QED is important because currently there are many emerging experimental approaches to reach strong or even ultrastrong coupling between dipoles and photons, which demand a correct treatment of the Dicke model parameters.
Systems of strongly interacting atoms and photons, which can be realized wiring up individual cavity QED systems into lattices, are perceived as a new platform for quantum simulation. While sharing important properties with other systems of interacting quantum particles, here we argue that the nature of light-matter interaction gives rise to unique features with no analogs in condensed matter or atomic physics setups. By discussing the physics of a lattice model of delocalized photons coupled locally with two-level systems through the elementary light-matter interaction described by the Rabi model, we argue that the inclusion of counterrotating terms, so far neglected, is crucial to stabilize finite-density quantum phases of correlated photons out of the vacuum, with no need for an artificially engineered chemical potential. We show that the competition between photon delocalization and Rabi nonlinearity drives the system across a novel Z(2) parity symmetry-breaking quantum criticality between two gapped phases that share similarities with the Dicke transition of quantum optics and the Ising critical point of quantum magnetism. We discuss the phase diagram as well as the low-energy excitation spectrum and present analytic estimates for critical quantities.
The Dicke model describing an ensemble of two-state atoms interacting with a single quantized mode of the electromagnetic field (with omission of the ${\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{A}}^{2}$ term) exhibits a zero-temperature phase transition at a critical value of the dipole coupling strength. We propose a scheme based on multilevel atoms and cavity-mediated Raman transitions to realize an effective Dicke model operating in the phase transition regime. Optical light from the cavity carries signatures of the critical behavior, which is analyzed for the thermodynamic limit where the number of atoms is very large.
We propose a generalized system of nonequilibrium cavity QED with interacting dipoles coupled to a single-mode of an electromagnetic field in strong-, ultrastrong-, and deep-strong-coupling regimes. To illustrate the applicability of the system, an extended Dicke model is developed for atoms undergoing Raman transitions between the ground states in the presence of laser fields and considering dipole-dipole interactions; the latter has been neglected in many previous works. We have studied the effect of a ferroelectric and an antiferroelectric arrangement on the phase transition for both a finite and an infinite number of dipoles. An additional superradiant phase is observed in the deep-strong-coupling regime due to influence of the dipole-dipole interaction term. A high degree of dipole-dipole entanglement occurs for the antiferroelectric arrangement in the deep-strong regime, whereas it gets disentangled quite rapidly for the ferroelectric arrangement. A sharp transition of system parameters is observed in the ultrastrong-coupling regime and beyond. The dipole-dipole interaction also influences the spectra of the system, inducing a significant shift in the peaks, and modifies the average number of photons emitted.
A phase transition describes the sudden change of state in a physical system, such as the transition between a fluid and a solid. Quantum gases provide the opportunity to establish a direct link between experiment and generic models which capture the underlying physics. A fundamental concept to describe the collective matter-light interaction is the Dicke model which has been predicted to show an intriguing quantum phase transition. Here we realize the Dicke quantum phase transition in an open system formed by a Bose-Einstein condensate coupled to an optical cavity, and observe the emergence of a self-organized supersolid phase. The phase transition is driven by infinitely long-ranged interactions between the condensed atoms. These are induced by two-photon processes involving the cavity mode and a pump field. We show that the phase transition is described by the Dicke Hamiltonian, including counter-rotating coupling terms, and that the supersolid phase is associated with a spontaneously broken spatial symmetry. The boundary of the phase transition is mapped out in quantitative agreement with the Dicke model. The work opens the field of quantum gases with long-ranged interactions, and provides access to novel quantum phases.
Dicke model describes a collective interaction between the two-level atoms and the light cavity and has been predicted to show a peculiar quantum phase transition, which is a second-order phase transition from a normal phase (in a weak-coupling strength) to a superradiant phase (in a strong-coupling strength). The model plays an important role in illustrating the quantum ground-state properties of many-body macroscopic quantum states. In the experiment, Dicke quantum phase transition in an open system could be formed by a Bose-Einstein condensate coupled to a high-finesse optical cavity. This experiment on the Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in the optical cavity have opened new frontiers, which could combine the cold atoms with quantum optics and makes it possible to enter into the strongly coupled regime of cavity quantum electrodynamics. In strong coupled regime, the atoms exchange the photons many times before spontaneous emission and cavity losses set in. It has become a hot research topic in recent years and plays an important role in many fields of modern physics, such as condensed matter physics, nuclear physics, etc. It can be applied to the manipulation of the geometric phase and entanglement in quantum information and computing. Quantum phase transition has been widely studied for the Dicke model as a typical example. Many different research methods about the mean-field approximation have been used to analyze the ground state properties of the Dicke model. In this paper, we study the ground state properties of two-component Bose-Einstein condensate in a single-mode cavity. Meanwhile, the associated quantum phase transition is described by the spin-coherent-state variational method, whose advantage is that the ground state energy and wave function can be obtained without the thermodynamic limit. By taking the average in the boson coherent state, we obtain an equivalent effective pesudospin Hamiltonian, which will be diagonalized by using the spin coherent state. Finally, we can obtain the energy functional, which is the basics of the variation to obtain the numerical solution of photon number and the expression of the atomic number and the ground state energy. This paper presents a rich phase diagram, which can be manipulated by changing the atom-field coupling imbalance between two components and the atom-field frequency detuning. While in the single-mode Dicke model there exist only the normal phase and the superradiation phase. When the frequency of one component atom is zero or the frequency of the two component atoms are equal in optical cavity, the system returns to the standard Dicke model, in which there occurs the second-order phase transition from the normal phase to the superradiant phase by adjusting the atom-field coupling. In conclusion, we discover that the stimulated radiation comes from the collective state of atomic population inversion, which does not exist in the single-mode Dicke model. Meanwhile, the new stimulated-radiation state S and S, which can only be produced by one component of the atom, are observed in the two-component Bose-Einstein condensates in the single-mode optical cavity. By adjusting the atom-field coupling imbalance and the atom-field frequency detuning (the blue or red detuning), the order of the superradiation state and the stimulated-radiation states can be exchanged between the two components of the atom.