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Physical Review A

Gamma-ray laser based on the collective decay of positronium atoms in a Bose-Einstein condensate

H. K. Avetissian, A. K. Avetissian, G. F. Mkrtchian

Published Aug 12, 2015• 15 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We consider, in general, the collective two-photon annihilation decay of positronium atoms arising from the second quantized formalism. It is shown that two-photon annihilation of positronium atoms in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is unstable. Due to the BEC coherence, an absolute instability in such system takes place, i.e., the number of photons created as a result of positronium decay grows in every point within a BEC. The latter leads to an exponential buildup of a macroscopic population into the certain modes. Cooperative effects start for densities much smaller than the Dicke limit of spontaneous super radiation. For laserlike action, i.e., for directional radiation, we consider the BEC with elongated shape when the spontaneously emitted entangled and oppositely directed photon pairs are amplified, leading to an exponential buildup of a macroscopic population into the end-fire modes. We also consider the roles of confinement and interaction among positronium atoms in the amplification process.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.92.023820

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We consider, in general, the collective two-photon annihilation decay of positronium atoms arising from the second quantized formalism. It is shown that two-photon annihilation of positronium atoms in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is unstable. Due to the BEC coherence, an absolute instability in such system takes place, i.e., the number of photons created as a result of positronium decay grows in every point within a BEC. The latter leads to an exponential buildup of a macroscopic population into the certain modes. Cooperative effects start for densities much smaller than the Dicke limit of spontaneous super radiation. For laserlike action, i.e., for directional radiation, we consider the BEC with elongated shape when the spontaneously emitted entangled and oppositely directed photon pairs are amplified, leading to an exponential buildup of a macroscopic population into the end-fire modes. We also consider the roles of confinement and interaction among positronium atoms in the amplification process.
A scheme of an intense coherent gamma-ray source based on the spontaneous radiation of positronium atoms in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) due to two-photon collective annihilation decay is investigated analytically arising from the second quantized formalism. It is shown that because of the intrinsic instability of annihilation decay of BEC, the spontaneously emitted entangled photon pairs are amplified, leading to an exponential buildup of a macroscopic population into end-fire modes at a certain shape of the elongated condensate. The considered scheme may also be applied to a BEC of atoms or quasiparticles as a laser mechanism with double coherence to create entangled photonic beams with a macroscopic number of photons.
The collective decay of excitons from initial Bose-Einstein condensate state is investigated theoretically. As a practically more interesting case we consider excitons of the yellow series in the semiconductor cuprous oxide where we have collective photon and phonon-assisted decay of excitons. It is shown that because of intrinsic instability of recoilless two-boson decay of Bose-Einstein condensate, the spontaneously emitted bosonic pairs are amplified, leading to an exponential buildup of a macroscopic population into the certain modes. The collective decay rate has a nonlinear dependence on the excitonic density being comparable or larger than the Auger recombination loss rate up to the high densities, which makes obtainable its observation. The phenomenon considered can also be applied for the realization of a phonon laser.
Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) of positronium (Ps) have been of experimental and theoretical interest due to their potential application as the gain medium of a $\ensuremath{\gamma}$-ray laser. Ps BECs are intrinsically spinor due to the presence of ortho-positronium (ooo-Ps) and para-positronium (ppp-Ps), whose annihilation lifetimes differ by three orders of magnitude. In this paper, we study the spinor dynamics and annihilation processes in the ppp-Ps/ooo-Ps system using both solutions of the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equations and a semiclassical rate-equation approach. The spinor interactions have an O(4) symmetry which is broken to SO(3) by an internal energy difference between ooo-Ps and ppp-Ps. For an initially unpolarized condensate, there is a threshold density of $\ensuremath{\approx}{10}^{19}$ cm${}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ at which spin mixing between ooo-Ps and ppp-Ps occurs. Beyond this threshold, there are unstable spatial modes accompanied by spin mixing. To ensure a high production yield above the critical density, a careful choice of external field must be made to avoid the spin mixing instability.
We have identified a mechanism of collective nuclear de-excitation in a Bose–Einstein condensate of 135Cs atoms in their isomeric state, 135mCs, suitable for the generation of coherent gamma photons. The process described here relies on coherence transfer from the Bose–Einstein condensate to the photon field, leading to collective decay triggered by spontaneous emission of a gamma photon. The mechanism differs from single-pass amplification, which cannot occur in atomic systems due to the nuclear recoil and the associated large shift between absorption and emission lines, nor does it require the large densities necessary for standard Dicke super-radiance. This overcomes the limitations that have been hindering the production of coherent gamma photons in many systems. Therefore, we propose an approach for generation of coherent gamma rays, which relies on a combination of well established techniques of nuclear and atomic physics, and can be realized with currently available technology.
The para-positronium system S01Ps is described by means of specially constructed coherent states (CSs) in the Klauder–Perelomov sense. It is analyzed from the physical point of view and from the geometry underlying the relevant symmetry group establishing the dynamics of the processes. In this new theoretical context, the possibility of a gamma-ray laser emission is investigated within a QFT context, showing explicitly that, in addition to the oscillator solution based only on a Bogoliubov approximation for the condensate, there is a second phase or “squeezed” stage by which physical features beyond the classical ones appear. Explicitly, while the generated photons are in the active medium (e.g., Ps-BEC), the evolution is described by a Heisenberg–Weyl coherent state with displacement operators dependent on the interaction time, which is related to the condensate shape. After the interaction time has elapsed, we explicitly demonstrate that the displacement operator of the S01Ps is transformed into a squeezed operator of the photonic fields modulated by the matrix element of the Positronium decay MS01Ps→2γ. We also show that this squeezed operator (belonging to the Metaplectic group) generates a non-classical radiation state spanning only even (s = 1/4) levels in the number of photons. The implications in astrophysical systems of interest, considering gamma-ray coherent emission and the possibility of an S01Ps−BEC in the context of pulsars, blazars, and quasars, are briefly discussed.
A method is investigated to manipulate the annihilation dynamics of a dense gas of positronium atoms employing superradiance and subradiance regimes of the cooperative spontaneous emission of the system. The corresponding annihilation dynamics is explored in two setups with regard to its fundamental novel properties and controlled by the gas density and by the intensity of a driving strong resonant laser field. In particular, the method allows us to increase the annihilation lifetime of an ensemble of positronium atoms by trapping the atoms in the excited state via collective radiative effects in the resonant laser field. In the second setup, the effect is enhanced by employing a cavity field. The maximum lifetime increase is by a factor of about 200 for para-positronium and by a factor of about 100 for ortho-positronium.