22 research outputs found
Mimicking a Squeezed Bath Interaction: Quantum Reservoir Engineering with Atoms
The interaction of an atomic two-level system and a squeezed vacuum leads to
interesting novel effects in atomic dynamics, including line narrowing in
resonance fluorescence and absorption spectra, and a suppressed (enhanced)
decay of the in-phase and out-of phase component of the atomic polarization. On
the experimental side these predictions have so far eluded observation,
essentially due to the difficulty of embedding atoms in a 4 pi squeezed vacuum.
In this paper we show how to ``engineer'' a squeezed-bath-type interaction for
an effective two-level system. In the simplest example, our two-level atom is
represented by the two ground levels of an atom with angular momentum J=1/2 ->
J=1/2 transition (a four level system) which is driven by (weak) laser fields
and coupled to the vacuum reservoir of radiation modes. Interference between
the spontaneous emission channels in optical pumping leads to a squeezed bath
type coupling, and thus to symmetry breaking of decay on the Bloch sphere. With
this system it should be possible to observe the effects predicted in the
context of squeezed bath - atom interactions. The laser parameters allow one to
choose properties of the squeezed bath interaction, such as the (effective)
photon number expectation number N and the squeezing phase phi. We present
results of a detailed analytical and numerical study.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figure
Backgrounds of squeezed relic photons and their spatial correlations
We discuss the production of multi-photons squeezed states induced by the
time variation of the (Abelian) gauge coupling constant in a string
cosmological context. Within a fully quantum mechanical approach we solve the
time evolution of the mean number of produced photons in terms of the squeezing
parameters and in terms of the gauge coupling. We compute the first (amplitude
interference) and second order (intensity interference) correlation functions
of the magnetic part of the photon background. The photons produced thanks to
the variation of the dilaton coupling are strongly bunched for the realistic
case where the growth of the dilaton coupling is required to explain the
presence of large scale magnetic fields and, possibly of a Faraday rotation of
the Cosmic Microwave Background.Comment: 9 pages in LaTex styl
Quantum Anti-Zeno Effect
We demonstrate that near threshold decay processes may be accelerated by
repeated measurements. Examples include near threshold photodetachment of an
electron from a negative ion, and spontaneous emission in a cavity close to the
cutoff frequency, or in a photon band gap material.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Ejection Energy of Photoelectrons in Strong Field Ionization
We show that zero ejection energy of the photoelectrons is classically
impossible for hydrogen-like ions, even when field ionization occurs
adiabatically. To prove this we transform the basic equations to those
describing two 2D anharmonic oscillators. The same method yields an alternative
way to derive the anomalous critical field of hydrogen-like ions. The
analytical results are confirmed and illustrated by numerical simulations. PACS
Number: 32.80.RmComment: 7 pages, REVTeX, postscript file including the figures is available
at http://www.physik.th-darmstadt.de/tqe/dieter/publist.html or via anonymous
ftp from ftp://tqe.iap.physik.th-darmstadt.de/pub/dieter/publ_I_pra_pre.ps,
accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Dilaton Contributions to the Cosmic Gravitational Wave Background
We consider the cosmological amplification of a metric perturbation
propagating in a higher-dimensional Brans-Dicke background, including a non
trivial dilaton evolution. We discuss the properties of the spectral energy
density of the produced gravitons (as well as of the associated squeezing
parameter), and we show that the present observational bounds on the graviton
spectrum provide significant information on the dynamical evolution of the
early universe.Comment: 26 pages, plain tex (to appear in Phys.Rev.D, 1 fig available from
the authors upon req.
Breakdown of stabilization of atoms interacting with intense, high-frequency laser pulses
Published versio
Atoms interacting with intense, high-frequency laser pulses: Effect of the magnetic-field component on atomic stabilization
Published versio
Stochastic backgrounds of relic gravitons: a theoretical appraisal
Stochastic backgrounds or relic gravitons, if ever detected, will constitute
a prima facie evidence of physical processes taking place during the earliest
stages of the evolution of the plasma. The essentials of the stochastic
backgrounds of relic gravitons are hereby introduced and reviewed. The pivotal
observables customarily employed to infer the properties of the relic gravitons
are discussed both in the framework of the CDM paradigm as well as in
neighboring contexts. The complementarity between experiments measuring the
polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (such as, for instance, WMAP,
Capmap, Quad, Cbi, just to mention a few) and wide band interferometers (e.g.
Virgo, Ligo, Geo, Tama) is emphasized. While the analysis of the microwave sky
strongly constrains the low-frequency tail of the relic graviton spectrum,
wide-band detectors are sensitive to much higher frequencies where the spectral
energy density depends chiefly upon the (poorly known) rate of
post-inflationary expansion.Comment: 94 pages, 32 figure