The interaction is considered between
N stationary two-level atoms and a radiation field described by a single cavity mode. The state vector for the complete system of atoms plus radiation is expressed as a linear superposition of states constructed from a product of photon states in the
n representation and products of Pauli spin eigenstates describing all combinations of atoms in the lower and upper energy levels. Equations for the corresponding probability amplitudes are derived by substituting this superposition into the Schr\"odinger equation. The resulting equations are combined into bilinear form and phenomenological damping contributions are added. After the neglect of certain of the bilinear quantities, a master equation is derived which governs the probability
Pmn of having
m atoms in the lower level and
n photons in the mode. This master equation takes account of multiple single-quantum absorption and emission processes but not of simultaneous multiple processes involving two or more atoms at a time. The equation which governs the expected number of photons
〈n〉 derived from the master equation bears a close resemblance to a rate equation. The effect of radiation loss from the cavity is incorporated into the master equation. Numerical calculations for a
Q-spoiled laser show that the statistics of the number of photons in the mode bear a qualitative resemblance to Poisson statistics.
We consider the interaction of a qubit system with a two-mode field in the presence of multi-photon transition and phase damping effect. We use the master equation to obtain the density operator when the qubit is initially prepared in its excited state and the field is in a finite-dimensional pair coherent state. The properties of the considered system, such as the population inversion, amount of the mixedness, parameter estimation, and squeezing, are explored for one- and two-photon transitions. The effects of photon addition to the field and phase damping on the evaluation of these quantumness measures are also investigated.
Using the recently discussed quantum dynamics in phase space, we derive a master equation, starting from the phase-space equivalent to the Schr\"odinger equation of motion for the density operator. Use is made of Zwanzig's projection-operator techniques and some explicit realizations of the projection operators are given. The master equation is then applied to show that the time-correlation functions, as defined in the text, satisfy an integral equation of the Volterra type. Next, a master equation for a system interacting with a large system is derived. As an illustration, we determine the lowest-order Born approximation and carry out a short-memory-approximation calculation for an oscillator coupled to a reservoir and for a two-level system interacting with an oscillator heat bath; we obtain equations of the Fokker-Planck type. Some physical implications of these equations are also discussed.
In a previous paper we showed how time-dependent projection operators may be employed to enable the Nakajima-Zwanzig projection-operator technique for deriving exact master equations to deal efficiently with two or more coupled classical or quantum systems, neither of which is reservoir like. We considered in detail the case where the relevant part of the classical-system probability-density function (PDF) or quantumsystem density operator (DO) is a product of the PDF's or DO's for the separate subsystems, and we applied the techniques developed to problems in quantum optics and in the kinetic theory of dilute nonideal gases. In this paper we make the time-dependent projection-operator approach useful for a greater variety of systems by allowing the relevant part of the PDF or DO to include correlations between two of the interacting subsystems. This extension allows us to describe well the dynamics of strongly interacting systems in a low degree of approximation while avoiding the use of infinite resummations. We derive exact generalized master equations in this manner for the same two cases as in our earlier work, namely a classical gas of
N molecules interacting via a two-body potential and a quantum-optical system of
N two-level atoms interacting with an electromagnetic field. In the former case, the relevant part of the PDF contains two-body correlations, and we obtain two exact coupled master equations for the singlet and doublet PDF's
F1(t) and
F2(t). In the latter case, the relevant part of the DO contains atom-field correlations, and the result is three exact coupled equations for the single-atom DO ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{1}(t)$, the field DO
R(t), and the DO for one atom plus the field $\ensuremath{\chi}(t)$. From the exact equations we derive approximate equations by making simplifying assumptions. In the case of the gas we carry out a straightforward density expansion of the ${\stackrel{\ifmmode \dot{}\else \.{}\fi{}}{F}}_{2}$ master equation and obtain a set of kinetic equations for dense gases, which have been derived previously by Frieman, Goldman, and Dorfman and which describe well effects due to the finite mean free path. In the quantum-optical case we derive kinetic equations for a single-mode laser by treating the $\stackrel{\ifmmode \dot{}\else \.{}\fi{}}{\ensuremath{\chi}}$ equation in the Born-Markoff approximation. The equations describe gain saturation and other effects on the field dynamics which are of infinite order in the atom-field coupling constant. It is shown that these equations reduce to previously derived laser master equations if atom-atom correlations can be neglected. Finally, we mention possible generalizations of the time-dependent projection-operator approach used in this paper and briefly discuss its application to other problems, including the kinetics of liquids, collisional line broadening, superradiance, and amplified spontaneous emission.
The master equation for a two-level atom driven by a strong classical field and damped into a tailored reservoir with nonflat density of modes is derived under the Born-Markov approximation. To derive the master equation, the dressing transformation on the atomic operators is performed first, and, next, the dressed operators are coupled to the reservoir and the corresponding damping rates are calculated. The effects of a strong field and/or structured reservoir are seen as nonstandard terms in the master equation, some of which are reminiscent of terms known for squeezed vacuum reservoirs. The master equation leads to the generalized optical Bloch equations that can easily be solved for the steady state and, together with the quantum regression theorem, allow for analytical expressions for the fluorescence, as well as absorption spectra.