Enhancement and suppression of spontaneous emission and light scattering by quantum degeneracy

Abstract

Quantum degeneracy modifies light scattering and spontaneous emission. For fermions, Pauli blocking leads to a suppression of both processes. In contrast, in a weakly interacting Bose-Einstein condensate, we find spontaneous emission to be enhanced, while light scattering is suppressed. This difference is attributed to many-body effects and quantum interference in a Bose-Einstein condensate.Comment: 4 pages 1 figur