Using the nonperturbative method of dressed states introduced in a previous publication [N. P. Andion, A. P. C. Malbouisson, and A. Mattos Neto, J. Phys. A 34, 3735 (2001)], we study effects of the environment on a quantum-mechanical system, in the case in which the environment is modeled by an ensemble of noninteracting harmonic oscillators. This method makes it possible to separate the whole system into the dressed mechanical system and the dressed environment, in terms of which a nonperturbative approach is possible. When applied to the Brownian motion, we give explicit nonperturbative formulas for the classical path of the particle in the weak and strong coupling regimes. When applied to studying atomic behaviors in cavities, the method accounts for experimentally observed inhibition of atomic decay in small cavities.
We consider a system modeled by a harmonic oscillator of frequency , coupled to the scalar potential inside a reflecting sphere of radius R. We use dressed states introduced originally in [1] and recently employed in [2] to present a non-perturbative unified description of the decay process of the system, in free space and in the case of the system being confined in a finite cavity. In the situation that we start from the initial condition that the system is in the first excited state, we give exact formulas to describe its time evolution for a cavity of arbitrary size. In the particular case of a very large cavity (free space), we recover the behaviour expected from perturbation theory in the limit of the small coupling constant. In the case of a very small cavity, our results are in good agreement with experimental observations
Using the non-perturbative method of {\it dressed} states introduced in previous publications [N.P.Andion, A.P.C. Malbouisson and A. Mattos Neto, J.Phys.{\bf A34}, 3735, (2001); G. Flores-Hidalgo, A.P.C. Malbouisson, Y.W. Milla, Phys. Rev. A, {\bf 65}, 063314 (2002)], we study the evolution of a confined quantum mechanical system embedded in a {\it ohmic} environment. Our approach furnishes a theoretical mechanism to control inhibition of the decay of excited quantum systems in cavities, in both weak and strong coupling regimes.
We consider a system consisting of a particle in the harmonic approximation, having frequency
ωˉ, coupled to a scalar field inside a spherical reflecting cavity of diameter
L. By introducing {\it dressed} coordinates we define {\it dressed} states which allow a non-perturbative unified description of the radiation process, for weak and strong coupling regimes. We perform a study of the energy distribution in a small cavity, with the initial condition that the particle is in the first excited state. In the {\it weak} coupling regime, we conclude for the quasi-stability of the excited particle. For instance, for a frequency
ωˉ of the order
ωˉ∼4.00×1014/s (in the visible red), starting from the initial condition that the particle is in the first excited level, we find that for a cavity with diameter
L∼1.0×10−6m, the probability that the particle be at any time still in the first excited level, will be of the order of 97%. For appropriate cavity dimensions, which are of the same order of those ensuring stability for weak coupling, we ensure for strong coupling the complete decay of the particle to the ground state in a small ellapsed time. Also we consider briefly the effects of a quartic interaction up to first order in the interaction parameter
λ. We obtain for a large cavity an explicit
λ-dependent expression for the particle radiation process. This formula is obtained in terms of the corresponding exact expression for the linear case and we conclude for the enhancement of the particle decay induced by the quartic interaction.
Using the formalism of renormalized coordinates and dressed states introduced in previous publications, we perform a nonperturbative study of the time evolution of a superposition of two states, the ground state and the first excited level of a harmonic oscillator, the system being confined in a perfectly reflecting cavity of radius R . For R → ∞ , we find dissipation with dominance of the interference terms of the density matrix, in both weak- and strong-coupling regimes. For small values of R all elements of the density matrix present an oscillatory behavior as time goes on and the system is not dissipative. In both cases, we obtain improved theoretical results with respect to those coming from perturbation theory.
We study the time evolution of entangled states of a pair of identical atoms, considered in the harmonic approximation, coupled to an environment represented by an infinite set of free oscillators, with the whole system confined within a spherical cavity of radius
R. Taking the center-of-mass and the relative-position coordinates, and using the dressed-state approach, we present the time evolution of some quantities measuring the entanglement for both limits of a very large and a small cavity; the chosen examples are simple and illustrate these very distinct behaviors.