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arXiv:2505.12696

Phase Transitions in Open Dicke Model: a degenerate perturbation theory approach

Wenqi Tong, Hadiseh Alaeian, F. Robicheaux

Published May 19, 2025• 0 citations
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Abstract

We study the steady-state behavior of the open Dicke model, which describes the collective interaction of $N$ spin-$1/2$ particles with a lossy, quantized cavity mode and exhibits a superradiant phase transition above a critical light-matter coupling. While the standard model conserves total spin, Kirton and Keeling \cite{PhysRevLett.118.123602} demonstrated that even infinitesimal homogeneous local dephasing destroys this phase transition, and that local atomic decay can restore it. We analyze this interplay using degenerate perturbation theory across subspaces of fixed total spin, $S$. For coupling strengths above the threshold, there exists a critical spin value $S_c$ such that the superradiant phase transition occurs only for $S>S_c$. The perturbative approach captures how weak dephasing and decay induce mixing between different $S$-subspaces, yielding a steady-state spin distribution whose width scales as $1/\sqrt{N}$. This framework requires only the first and second moments and can be implemented via different methods that can yield these two moments (for example, the 2nd-cumulant approach), circumventing the need for full density matrix calculations. These results bridge the quantum Rabi model and Dicke physics, elucidate the roles of dephasing and decay in collective quantum effects, and apply broadly to open quantum systems with degenerate steady states.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2505.12696

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Acta Physica Sinica•Jan 1, 2018•2 citations
We study the steady-state behavior of the open Dicke model, which describes the collective interaction of NNN spin-1/21/21/2 particles with a lossy, quantized cavity mode and exhibits a superradiant phase transition above a critical light-matter coupling. While the standard model conserves total spin, Kirton and Keeling \cite{PhysRevLett.118.123602} demonstrated that even infinitesimal homogeneous local dephasing destroys this phase transition, and that local atomic decay can restore it. We analyze this interplay using degenerate perturbation theory across subspaces of fixed total spin, SSS. For coupling strengths above the threshold, there exists a critical spin value ScS_cSc​ such that the superradiant phase transition occurs only for S>ScS>S_cS>Sc​. The perturbative approach captures how weak dephasing and decay induce mixing between different SSS-subspaces, yielding a steady-state spin distribution whose width scales as 1/N1/\sqrt{N}1/N​. This framework requires only the first and second moments and can be implemented via different methods that can yield these two moments (for example, the 2nd-cumulant approach), circumventing the need for full density matrix calculations. These results bridge the quantum Rabi model and Dicke physics, elucidate the roles of dephasing and decay in collective quantum effects, and apply broadly to open quantum systems with degenerate steady states.
We study the steady-state behavior of the open Dicke model, which describes the collective interaction of NNN spin-1/21/21/2 particles with a lossy, quantized cavity mode and exhibits a superradiant phase transition above a critical light-matter coupling. While the standard model conserves total spin, Kirton and Keeling [Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 123602 (2017)] demonstrated that even infinitesimal homogeneous local dephasing destroys this phase transition and that local atomic decay can restore it. We analyze this interplay using degenerate perturbation theory across subspaces of fixed total spin, SSS. For coupling strengths above the threshold, there exists a critical spin value Sc{S}_{c}Sc​ such that the superradiant phase transition occurs only for S>ScS>{S}_{c}S>Sc​. The perturbative approach captures how weak dephasing and decay induce mixing between different SSS subspaces, yielding a steady-state spin distribution whose width scales as 1/N1/\sqrt{N}1/N​. This framework requires only the first and second moments and can be implemented via different methods that can yield these two moments (for example, the second-cumulant approach), circumventing the need for full density matrix calculations. These results bridge the quantum Rabi model and Dicke physics, elucidate the roles of dephasing and decay in collective quantum effects, and apply broadly to open quantum systems with degenerate steady states.
The Dicke model describes the collective behavior of a subwavelength-size ensemble of two-level atoms (i.e., spin-1/2) interacting identically with a single quantized radiation field of a cavity. Across a critical coupling strength it exhibits a zero-temperature phase transition from the normal state to the superradiant phase where the field is populated and the collective spin acquires a nonzero x component, which can be imagined as ferromagnetic ordering of the atomic spins along x. Here we introduce a variant of this model where two subwavelength-size ensembles of spins interact with a single quantized radiation field with different strengths. Subsequently, we restrict ourselves to a special case where the coupling strengths are opposite (which is unitarily equivalent to equal-coupling strengths). Because of the conservation of the total spin in each ensemble individually, the system supports two distinct superradiant states with x-ferromagnetic and x-ferrimagnetic spin ordering, coexisting with each other in a large parameter regime. The stability and dynamics of the system in the thermodynamic limit are examined using a semiclassical approach, which predicts nonstationary behaviors due to the multistabilities. At the end, we also perform small-scale full quantum-mechanical calculations, with results consistent with the semiclassical ones.
The Dicke model is a staple of theoretical cavity quantum electrodynamics (cavity QED), describing the interaction between an ensemble of atoms and a single radiation mode of an optical cavity. It is studied both quantum mechanically and semiclassically for two-level atoms, and demonstrates a rich variety of dynamics such as phase transitions, phase multistability, and chaos. In this work we explore an open, spin-1 Dicke model with independent co and counterrotating coupling terms as well as a quadratic Zeeman shift enabling control over the atomic energy-level structure. We investigate the stability of operator and moment equations under two approximations and show the system undergoes phase transitions. To compliment these results, we relax the aforementioned approximations and investigate the system semiclassically. We show evidence of phase transitions to steady-state and oscillatory superradiance in this semiclassical model, as well as the emergence of chaotic dynamics. The varied and complex behaviors admitted by the model highlights the need to more rigorously map its dynamics.
Interactions among emitters provide a powerful means of controlling collective light--matter phenomena, yet their role in superradiant criticality has not been thoroughly investigated. Here we construct a minimal model that can yield analytical insights --- a Dicke model with two interacting atoms coupled to a single mode cavity --- to study such interaction effects. We show that interaction changes the phase boundary, and may even completely suppress the atom-photon coupling threshold for superradiance and change the universality class of the phase transition. We further study the dissipative phase transition and quantum dynamics in the presence of dissipation channels such as photon loss and spin relaxation. Our results demonstrate important roles played by the atom-atom interaction and how it can be engineered to control atom-photon coupling.
We explore the steady-state critical behavior of the finite-size open Dicke model—a model that incorporates spontaneous emission decay of the collective atomic spin states and decay of the cavity field. From the perspective of quantum information theory, we can often better characterize the quantum phase transition. In this paper, we characterize the super-radiant phase transition of the steady state of the open Dicke model by numerically calculating the quantum Fisher information (QFI). We calculate the QFI for the atomic state and the cavity field state, as well as their derivatives. We find that the QFI of the cavity field state is more sensitive to atomic decay, and is suppressed more severely in the presence of atomic decay. In contrast, the QFI of the atomic state is less sensitive to the photon loss of the cavity field.
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.