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Advanced Quantum Technologies

Introduction to the Dicke Model: From Equilibrium to Nonequilibrium, and Vice Versa (Adv. Quantum Technol. 1‐2/2019)

Peter Kirton, Mor M. Roses, Jonathan Keeling, Emanuele G. Dalla Torre

Published Feb 1, 2019• 44 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The Dicke model is a fundamental model of quantum optics that describes the coupling between many two level systems and a single cavity model. One of the key features of the model is a phase transition between a normal phase, in which the atoms are mostly unexcited, and a superradiant phase, in which the atoms emit light coherently into the cavity. For further information see the Progress Report by Emanuele G. Dalla Torre and co-workers, article number 1800043. (Cover image design: Mor M. Roses.)

DOI
10.1002/qute.201970013

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Introduction to the Dicke Model: From Equilibrium to Nonequilibrium, and Vice Versa

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Abstract The Dicke model describes the coupling between a quantized cavity field and a large ensemble of two‐level atoms. When the number of atoms tends to infinity, this model can undergo a transition to a superradiant phase, belonging to the mean‐field Ising universality class. The superradiant transition was first predicted for atoms in thermal equilibrium and was recently realized with a quantum simulator made of atoms in an optical cavity, subject to both dissipation and driving. This progress report offers an introduction to some theoretical concepts relevant to the Dicke model, reviewing the critical properties of the superradiant phase transition and the distinction between equilibrium and nonequilibrium conditions. In addition, it explains the fundamental difference between the superradiant phase transition and the more common lasing transition. This report mostly focuses on the steady states of atoms in single‐mode optical cavities, but it also mentions some aspects of real‐time dynamics, as well as other quantum simulators, including superconducting qubits, trapped ions, and using spin–orbit coupling for cold atoms. These realizations differ in regard to whether they describe equilibrium or nonequilibrium systems.

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M. Aparicio Alcalde, A. H. Cardenas, Nami Fux Svaiter +1 more

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The Dicke model is a fundamental model of quantum optics that describes the coupling between many two level systems and a single cavity model. One of the key features of the model is a phase transition between a normal phase, in which the atoms are mostly unexcited, and a superradiant phase, in which the atoms emit light coherently into the cavity. For further information see the Progress Report by Emanuele G. Dalla Torre and co-workers, article number 1800043. (Cover image design: Mor M. Roses.)
Abstract The Dicke model describes the coupling between a quantized cavity field and a large ensemble of two‐level atoms. When the number of atoms tends to infinity, this model can undergo a transition to a superradiant phase, belonging to the mean‐field Ising universality class. The superradiant transition was first predicted for atoms in thermal equilibrium and was recently realized with a quantum simulator made of atoms in an optical cavity, subject to both dissipation and driving. This progress report offers an introduction to some theoretical concepts relevant to the Dicke model, reviewing the critical properties of the superradiant phase transition and the distinction between equilibrium and nonequilibrium conditions. In addition, it explains the fundamental difference between the superradiant phase transition and the more common lasing transition. This report mostly focuses on the steady states of atoms in single‐mode optical cavities, but it also mentions some aspects of real‐time dynamics, as well as other quantum simulators, including superconducting qubits, trapped ions, and using spin–orbit coupling for cold atoms. These realizations differ in regard to whether they describe equilibrium or nonequilibrium systems.
The Dicke model is a fundamental model of quantum optics, which describes the interaction between light and matter. In the Dicke model, the light component is described as a single quantum mode, while the matter is described as a set of two-level systems. When the coupling between the light and matter crosses a critical value, the Dicke model shows a mean-field phase transition to a superradiant phase. This transition belongs to the Ising universality class and was realized experimentally in cavity quantum electrodynamics experiments. Although the superradiant transition bears some analogy with the lasing instability, these two transitions belong to different universality classes.
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.
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.
The full Dicke model is composed of a single bosonic mode and an ensemble of NNN identical two-level atoms. In the model, the coupling between the bosonic mode and the atoms generates resonant and nonresonant processes. We also consider a dipole-dipole interaction between the atoms, which is able to generate entangled states in the atomic system. By assuming thermal equilibrium with a reservoir at temperature ${\ensuremath{\beta}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$, the transition from fluorescent to superradiant phase and the quantum phase transition are investigated. It is shown that the critical behavior of the full Dicke model is not modified by the introduction of the dipole-dipole interaction.