Some physicists are questioning the necessity of quantum electrodynamics in quantum optics and perhaps elsewhere. A lively discussion on possible alternatives developed during the Third Rochester Conference on Coherence and Quantum Optics at the end of June. The most widely discussed alternative was the neoclassical theory of Edwin Jaynes and his collaborators (Washington University in St. Louis). This theory regards the Maxwell equations as describing the radiation field while the Schrödinger equation is applied to the atoms. The charge and current sources of the Maxwell field are taken to be given by the corresponding probability densities of wave mechanics. Jaynes contends that these nonlinear equations describe physical phenomena better than has been appreciated in earlier times.
Some physicists are questioning the necessity of quantum electrodynamics in quantum optics and perhaps elsewhere. A lively discussion on possible alternatives developed during the Third Rochester Conference on Coherence and Quantum Optics at the end of June. The most widely discussed alternative was the neoclassical theory of Edwin Jaynes and his collaborators (Washington University in St. Louis). This theory regards the Maxwell equations as describing the radiation field while the Schrödinger equation is applied to the atoms. The charge and current sources of the Maxwell field are taken to be given by the corresponding probability densities of wave mechanics. Jaynes contends that these nonlinear equations describe physical phenomena better than has been appreciated in earlier times.
The Jaynes-Cummings paper treats the problem of one-atom interacting with one cavity mode with two alternative theories: quantum electrodynamics and semiclassical theory, and compares the predictions. The semiclassical theory was later extended to treat a single atom in free space interacting with a classical field including radiation reaction. The resulting theory was called Neoclassical theory, and is described by nonlinear optical Bloch equations. These nonlinear equations have shown up in a number of physical systems and were the subject of the famous Jaynes-Franken bet that was a prominent feature of the early Rochester Coherence and Quantum Optics Conferences. We will touch on all of these topics in a historical review.
During the last week of June 1960, a three-day conference on the coherence properties of electromagnetic radiation was held on the campus of the University of Rochester. Sponsored by the US Air Force, the University of Rochester, and the Optical Society of America, the purpose of the conference was to bring together optical and atomic physicists from this country and abroad to discuss problems of common interest dealing with the question of coherence throughout the electromagnetic spectrum. To a large extent motivation was supplied by a number of controversial and surprising developments in widely separated branches of physics within the last decade. Certainly much of the attention paid to questions of coherence after so many years of its having lain dormant is due in no small measure to the now famous Brown-Twiss experiment (1955) on the correlation in fluctuations of the output currents of two photoelectric detectors exposed to mutually coherent fields of light. The controversy that followed demonstrated clearly the lack of understanding of the statistical properties inherent in the emission, propagation, and detection of radiation. Whether or not one chose to explain the correlation as a natural tendency for bosons to clump or a natural interference effect among Fourier components in the finite spectral width of every natural source (or both) seemed at first to be a question of taste.
We report new results in neoclassical quantum optics by applying the central theme of the Jaynes–Cummings paper of 1963. This theme, which Jaynes and Cummings emphasized in several ways, is the key role that must be assigned to radiative back reaction in quantum radiation dynamics. Its consequences are well known in subjects related to cavity quantum electrodynamics, and its influence on optical pulse evolution theory is equally strong. Here we provide a new solitonic extension of the radiation reaction theme to short-pulse broad-bandwidth propagation theory. We report a single formula encapsulating a three-pulse scenario in which the stable imprint of signal-pulse coherence, placed in an atomic medium at a predictable location by an initial pulse pair, is subsequently transferred by a third pulse to a different location. This is analysed by reference to our new analytic solution of the nonlinearly coupled density matrix equations that incorporate the radiation reaction fields obtained from the Maxwell equations for the pulses in the atomic medium.
Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) has been extremely successful inits predictive capability for atomic phenomena. Thus the greatest hope for any alternative view is solely to mimic the predictive capability of quantum mechanics (QM), and perhaps its usefulness will lie in gaining a better understanding of microscopic phenomena. Many “paradoxes” and problematic situations emerge in QED. To combat the QED problems, the field of Stochastics Electrodynamics (SE) emerged, wherein a random “zero point radiation” is assumed to fill all of space in an attmept to explain quantum phenomena, without some of the paradoxical concerns. SE, however, has greater failings. One is that the electromagnetic field energy must be infinit eto work. We have examined a deterministic side branch of SE, “self field” electrodynamics, which may overcome the probelms of SE. Self field electrodynamics (SFE) utilizes the chaotic nature of electromagnetic emissions, as charges lose energy near atomic dimensions, to try to understand and mimic quantum phenomena. These fields and charges can “interact with themselves” in a non-linear fashion, and may thereby explain many quantum phenomena from a semi-classical viewpoint. Referred to as self fields, they have gone by other names in the literature: “evanesccent radiation”, “virtual photons”, and “vacuum fluctuations”. Using self fields, we discuss the uncertainty principles, the Casimir effects, and the black-body radiation spectrum, diffraction and interference effects, Schrodinger's equation, Planck's constant, and the nature of the electron and how they might be understood in the present framework. No new theory could ever replace QED. The self field view (if correct) would, at best, only serve to provide some understanding of the processes by which strange quantum phenomena occur at the atomic level. We discuss possible areas where experiments might be employed to test SFE, and areas where future work may lie.
W1 Resonant Pulse Propagation I.- W1-1 Some Nonlinear Properties of Pulse Propagation.- W1-2 Self-Induced Transparency in the Broadline and Narrowline Limits and Applications.- W1-3 Observation of Zero-Degree Pulse Propagation in a Resonant Medium.- W1-4 Higher Conservation Laws and Coherent Pulse Propagation.- W2 Quantum Electrodynamics and Alternative Theories I.- W2-1 Survey of the Present Status of Neoclassical Radiation Theory.- W2-2 A Test of Jaynes' Neoclassical Theory: Incoherent Resonance Fluorescence from a Coherently Excited State.- W2-3 Experimental Limitations to the Validity of Semiclassical Radiation Theories.- W2-4 Time Delay Statistics of Photoelectric Emissions: An Experimental Test of Classical Radiation Theory.- W3 Coherence Effects in Spontaneous Emission I.- W3-1 Non-Linear Radiation Reaction.- W3-2 Master Equations in the Theory of Incoherent and Coherent Spontaneous Emission.- W3-3 Influence of Resonant Frequency Shifts on Superradiant Damping.- W3-4 Spontaneous Emission Rate in the Presence of a Mirror.- W4 Coherence I.- W4-1 Atomic Coherent States in Quantum Optics.- W4-2 Coherent States in Modern Physics.- W4-3 Debye Representation and Multipole Expansion of the Quantized Free Electromagnetic Field.- W4-4 Volume of Coherence.- T1 Quantum Electrodynamics and Alternative Theories II.- T1-1 A Quantum Treatment of Spontaneous Emission without Photons.- T1-2 Finite Quantum and Classical Electrodynamics.- T1-3 The Use of Classical Solutions in Quantum Optics.- T1-4 Raman Effect in Semiclassical Theory.- T2 Light Scattering I.- T2-1 Theory of Resonant Light Scattering Processes in Solids.- T2-2 A Generalized Extinction Theorem and Its Role in Scattering Theory.- T2-3 Mode Analysis and Mode Coupling of Electromagnetic Fields in Spatially Dispersive Media.- T2-4 Amplitude Stabilization of Pulses from a Q-Switched Ruby Laser by Means of Interaction with a Non-Linear Medium.- T3 Correlation and Fluctuation Measurements.- T3-1 Two-Photon Time Distributions in Mixed Light Beams.- T3-2 Photocounting Inversion in Presence of Dead Time Effects.- T3-3 Image Reconstruction from the Modulus of the Correlation Function: A Practical Approach to the Phase Problem of Coherence Theory.- T3-4 Photon-Correlation Spectroscopy.- T3-5 Multi-Time Intervals Distributions of Photoelectrons from Stationary Pseudo-Thermal Light with Gaussian Spectrum.- T4 Light Scattering II.- T4-1 Adventures in Green's Land: Light Scattering in Anisotropic Media.- T4-2 Intensity Fluctuation Techniques in Light Scattering.- T4-3 Coherence Properties of Light through a Liquid Crystal.- T4-4 C. Non-Critical Rayleigh Scattering from Pure Liquids.- T5 Coherence Effects in Spontaneous Emission II.- T5-1 Cooperative Effects in Spontaneous Emission.- T5-2 Amplified Spontaneous Emission.- T5-3 Non-Gaussian Statistics of Superradiant Radiation from Saturated Xenon 3.5?m Laser Amplifier.- T5-4 On the Theory of Radiating Electrons.- T6 Coherent Light Interactions.- T6-1 Atomic and Molecular Spectroscopy by Saturation with Coherent Light.- T6-2 Response Functions for Strongly Driven Systems.- T6-3 Mechanism of Interaction of Picosecond Light Pulses with Matter Yielding Self-Trapping.- T6-4 Resonance Fluorescence Lineshapes with Intense Applied Fields.- T6-5 Electron Beams as Carriers of Optical Coherence.- T7 Lasers.- T7-1 Detuned Single Mode Laser and Detailed Balance.- T7-2 Tunable Raman Lasers.- T7-3 Dye Lasers: Recent Advances in Tunable Systems.- F1 Quantum Electrodynamics and Alternative Theories III.- F1-1 A Theory of Light without Photons: Implications from Fermis to Light Years.- F1-2 Blackbody Heat Capacity and Action-at-a-Distance Electrodynamics.- F1-3 The Implications of Radiative Equilibrium in Jaynes' Extension of Semiclassical Radiation Theory.- F1-4 A Quantum Electrodynamic Investigation of the Jaynes-Crisp-Stroud Approach to Spontaneous Emission.- F1-5 Critical Comments on Radiation Theory.- F2 Resonant Pulse Propagation II.- F2-1 Cooperative Phenomena in Resonant Propagation.- F2-2 Theory of Sub-Cooperation-Limit Optical Pulses in Resonant Absorbers.- F2-3 Multiple Pulse Chirping in Self-Induced Transparency.- F2-4 Coupled Superradiance Master Equations: Application to Fluctuations in Coherent Pulse Propagation in Resonant Media.- F3 Coherence II.- F3-1 The Laser-Phase Transition Analogy - Recent Developments.- F3-2 Multiple-Time-Scale Analysis of Coherent Radiation.- F3-3 Orthogonal Operators and Phase Space Distributions in Quantum Optics.- F4 Coherence Effects in Spontaneous Emission III.- F4-1 Radiation by Many Excited Atoms between Mirrors.- F4-2 Transient Coherent Emission.- F4-3 Superradiance from a System of 3-Level Particles.- F4-4 A Quantum Electrodynamic View of Superradiance as a Competition between Stimulated and Spontaneous Atomic Decay.- F5 Post Deadline Session.- F5-1 Third- and Higher-Order Intensity Correlations in Laser Light.- F5-2 Correlation Function of a Laser Beam near Threshold.- F5-3 Localization of Photons.- F5-4 Adiabatic Following and the Self-Defocusing of Light in Rubidium Vapor.- F5-5 Experimental Evidence of an X-Ray Laser.- F5-6 Quantum Theory of Photodetection and Coherence Properties of Electrons.- F5-7 Statistics of Light Scattered by Non-Gaussian Fluctuations.- F6 Quantum Noise.- F6-1 Unified Thermodynamics of Dissipative Structures and Coherence in Nonlinear Optics.- F6-2 The Approach to Thermal Equilibrium in Systems of Coupled Quantum Oscillators Initially in a Generalized Gaussian State.- F6-3 Comparison between Incoherent and Chaotic Sources: Contribution to the Study of the Origin of Bunching Effect.- F6-4 Self-Pulsing in Laser Amplification of Broadband Noise.- Author Index.
I thank Rodger Walser and his colleagues for organizing this conference to celebrate George \nSudarshan’s birthday and landmark achievements in science. It is an honor for me to be here and \nalso a great pleasure to be back in Austin to join the chorus of the FOGS. \nI would like begin with a brief historical introduction and then turn to topics that we \nhaven’t heard so much about thus far in the symposium, namely experiments in Quantum Optics. \nLet me remind you that blackbody radiation has had a profound impact on physics since the time \nof Planck. However, even in more modern times after the development of quantum mechanics \nand quantum electrodynamics, one really did not know how to describe the underlying field \nfluctuations as required for diverse interference phenomena. Emil Wolf laid critical foundations \nfor this enterprise with his theory of classical coherence developed in collaboration with Max \nBorn in their classic book Principles of Optics. \nA great challenge to the physics community was the experiment by R. H. Brown and R. \nQ. Twiss in 1956 [1], which led to a confusing and controversial time for photons and fields. In \n1958 Leonard Mandel helped to resolve the controversy by explaining how light fluctuations are \nconverted to photocurrents in the detection process, albeit in with a classical description of the \nfield [2]. The confusion arose from the effort to understand, on the one hand, interference \nphenomena that are expressed in terms of the complex amplitude of the electromagnetic field, for \nwhich only a classical description was available. On the other hand, quantum electrodynamics \nhad been developed based upon energy eigenstates (i.e., Fock states) with photons as quanta. It \nwas really difficult to understand how the electric and magnetic fields behave in terms of these \nquantum states. For example, the expectation value of any electromagnetic field is zero in a Fock \nstate. The confusion was compounded by the historic invention of the maser and laser and by the \npressing need for quantum theories of the dynamical processes of these and other laboratory \nadvances.