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A semiclassical study of the Jaynes-Cummings model

O. Babelon, Luigi Cantini A, Benoît Douçot

Published Jan 1, 2009• 23 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

We consider the Jaynes-Cummings model of a single quantum spin $s$ coupled to a harmonic oscillator in a parameter regime where the underlying classical dynamics exhibits an unstable equilibrium point. This state of the model is relevant to the physics of cold atom systems, in non-equilibrium situations obtained by fast sweeping through a Feshbach resonance. We show that in this integrable system with two degrees of freedom, for any initial condition close to the unstable point, the classical dynamics is controlled by a singularity of the focus-focus type. In particular, it displays the expected monodromy, which forbids the existence of global action-angle coordinates. Explicit calculations of the joint spectrum of conserved quantities reveal the monodromy at the quantum level, as a dislocation in the lattice of eigenvalues. We perform a detailed semi-classical analysis of the associated eigenstates. Whereas most of the levels are well described by the usual Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization rules, properly adapted to polar coordinates, we show how these rules are modified in the vicinity of the critical level. The spectral decomposition of the classically unstable state is computed, and is found to be dominated by the critical WKB states. This provides a useful tool to analyze the quantum dynamics starting from this particular state, which exhibits an aperiodic sequence of solitonic pulses with a rather well defined characteristic frequency.

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Approximate controllability of the Jaynes-Cummings dynamics

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We consider the Jaynes-Cummings model of a single quantum spin sss coupled to a harmonic oscillator in a parameter regime where the underlying classical dynamics exhibits an unstable equilibrium point. This state of the model is relevant to the physics of cold atom systems, in non-equilibrium situations obtained by fast sweeping through a Feshbach resonance. We show that in this integrable system with two degrees of freedom, for any initial condition close to the unstable point, the classical dynamics is controlled by a singularity of the focus-focus type. In particular, it displays the expected monodromy, which forbids the existence of global action-angle coordinates. Explicit calculations of the joint spectrum of conserved quantities reveal the monodromy at the quantum level, as a dislocation in the lattice of eigenvalues. We perform a detailed semi-classical analysis of the associated eigenstates. Whereas most of the levels are well described by the usual Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization rules, properly adapted to polar coordinates, we show how these rules are modified in the vicinity of the critical level. The spectral decomposition of the classically unstable state is computed, and is found to be dominated by the critical WKB states. This provides a useful tool to analyze the quantum dynamics starting from this particular state, which exhibits an aperiodic sequence of solitonic pulses with a rather well defined characteristic frequency.
We present a detailed analysis of the classical Dicke-Jaynes-Cummings-Gaudin integrable model, which describes a system of nnn spins coupled to a single harmonic oscillator. We focus on the singularities of the vector-valued moment map whose components are the n+1n+1n+1 mutually commuting conserved Hamiltonians. The level sets of the moment map corresponding to singular values may be viewed as degenerate and often singular Arnold-Liouville torii. A particularly interesting example of singularity corresponds to unstable equilibrium points where the rank of the moment map is zero, or singular lines where the rank is one. The corresponding level sets can be described as a reunion of smooth strata of various dimensions. Using the Lax representation, the associated spectral curve and the separated variables, we show how to construct explicitely these level sets. A main difficulty in this task is to select, among possible complex solutions, the physically admissible family for which all the spin components are real. We obtain explicit solutions to this problem in the rank zero and one cases. Remarkably this corresponds exactly to solutions obtained previously by Yuzbashyan and whose geometrical meaning is therefore revealed. These solutions can be described as multi-mode solitons which can live on strata of arbitrary large dimension. In these solitons, the energy initially stored in some excited spins (or atoms) is transferred at finite times to the oscillator mode (photon) and eventually comes back into the spin subsystem. But their multi-mode character is reflected by a large diversity in their shape, which is controlled by the choice of the initial condition on the stratum.
We analyze the time-dependent physical spectrum of a driven Jaynes-Cummings model in which both the two-level system and the quantized cavity mode are subject to coherent classical driving. The time-dependent Hamiltonian is mapped, via well-defined unitary transformations, onto an effective stationary Jaynes-Cummings form. Within this framework, we derive closed-form expressions for the two-time correlation functions of both the atomic and field operators. These correlation functions are subsequently used to evaluate the time-dependent physical spectrum according to the Eberly-Wódkiewicz definition, which properly accounts for finite spectral resolution and transient emission dynamics. We show that the external driving leads to substantial modifications of the atomic spectral response, including controllable frequency shifts and asymmetric line shapes. Importantly, we identify a regime in which the driving parameters are chosen such that the coherent displacement induced in the cavity field exactly cancels out the initial coherent amplitude. In this limit, the system dynamics reduce to that of an effectively vacuum-initialized Jaynes-Cummings model, and the standard vacuum Rabi splitting is recovered. This behavior provides a clear and physically transparent interpretation of the spectral features as arising from coherent field displacement rather than from modifications of the underlying atom-cavity coupling.
We investigate the controllability of quantum systems in two different settings: the standard "closed" setting, in which a quantum system is seen as isolated and the control problem is formulated on the Schrödinger equation; the open setting that describes a quantum system in interaction with a larger one, of which just qualitative parameters are known, by means of the Lindblad equation on states. In the context of closed systems we focus our attention to an interesting class of models, namely the spin-boson models. The latter describe the interaction between a 2-level quantum system and finitely many distinguished modes of a bosonic field. We discuss two prototypical examples, the Rabi model and the Jaynes-Cummings model, which despite their age are still very popular in several fields of quantum physics. Notably, in the context of cavity Quantum Electro Dynamics (C-QED) they provide an approximate yet accurate description of the dynamics of a 2-level atom in a resonant microwave cavity, as in recent experiments of S. Haroche. We investigate the controllability properties of these models, analyzing two different types of control operators acting on the bosonic part, corresponding -in the application to cavity QED- to an external electric and magnetic field, respectively. We review some recent results and prove the approximate controllability of the Jaynes-Cummings model with these controls. This result is based on a spectral analysis exploiting the non-resonances of the spectrum. As far as the relation between the Rabi and the Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonians concerns, we treat the so called rotating wave approximation in a rigorous framework. We formulate the problem as an adiabatic limit in which the detuning frequency and the interaction strength parameter goes to zero, known as the weak-coupling regime. We prove that, under certain hypothesis on the ratio between the detuning and the coupling, the Jaynes-Cumming and the Rabi dynamics exhibit the same behaviour, more precisely the evolution operators they generate are close in norm. In the framework of open quantum systems we investigate the controllability of the Lindblad equation. We consider a control acting adiabatically on the internal part of the system, which we see as a degree of freedom that can be used to contrast the action of the environment. The adiabatic action of the control is chosen to produce a robust transition. We prove, in the prototype case of a two-level system, that the system approach a set of equilibrium points determined by the environment, i.e. the parameters that specify the Lindblad operator. On that set the system can be adiabatically steered choosing a suitable control. The analysis is based on the application of geometrical singular perturbation methods.
We present a method to study the semiclassical dynamics of the Jaynes-Cummings dimer model, describing two coupled cavities, each containing a two-level system (qubit). We develop a Fock-space WKB approach in the polariton basis where each site is treated exactly while the intersite polariton hopping is treated semiclassically. We show that the self-trapped states can be viewed as Fock-space localized states. We find that this picture yields the correct critical value of interaction strength at which the delocalization-localization transition occurs. Moreover, the validity of our WKB approach is supported by showing that the quantum spectrum can be derived from a set of Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization conditions and by confirming that the quantum eigenstates are consistent with the classical orbital motion in the polariton band picture. The underlying idea of our method is quite general and can be applied to other interacting spin-boson models.
The Jaynes–Cummings model (JCM) is used to give a detailed analysis of the long-time behavior of a two-level atom interacting with a (Glauber) coherent-state field. This work is based on the earlier work of J. H. Eberly and collaborators, who drew attention to the collapse and revival of the Rabi oscillations of the atomic inversion. We use the three components S1, S2, and S3 of the pseudospin vector S to analyze the dynamics of the atom within the rotating-wave approximation and exact resonance. We show that, at the times when the revivals peak, the variables σ = |S| and η = S3/σ become independent of (1) the transition dipole moment of the atom, (2) the intensity of the coherent-state field, and (3) the (common) frequency of the atom and the field. Thus these special values of σ and η are a universal feature of the JCM that should be observed in experiments with any two-level atom in an arbitrarily intense (but resonant) coherent-state field. The derivation of the above results was facilitated by transforming into a rotating coordinate frame in which S1 = 0 so that S2 and S3 are the only dynamical variables. The two-dimensional nature of S in this frame makes it easy to visualize the dynamical changes in the atom. The dynamics of the JCM is clarified by comparison with the closely related Buck–Sukumar model. The relationship of the phenomena discussed here to photon echoes and to quench echoes (in condensed media) is pointed out.
We investigate the controllability of the Jaynes-Cummings dynamics in the resonant and nearly resonant regime. We analyze two different types of control operators acting on the bosonic part, corresponding—in the application to cavity Quantum Electro Dynamics—to an external electric and magnetic field, respectively. For these models, we prove approximate controllability for all values of the coupling constant g∈R, except those in a countable set S* which is explicitly characterized in the statement. The proof relies on a spectral analysis which yields the non-resonance of the spectrum for every g∈R\S*.