Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2007 / iii / Paper 60 / 5 / a

Use units $\hslash =1$. A Hermitian quadrature coupling of a cavity mode to a continuum of external modes can be writtenwith real coupling amplitude $\kappa$. The free Quantum Hamiltonian is $H_0={\omega }_c{a}^{†}a+\int \omega b_{\omega }^{†}{b}_{\omega }d\omega$. In the interaction picture, the two photon-exchange products $a{b}_{\omega }^{†}$ and $a^{†}{b}_{\omega }$ acquire phases with frequency $\omega -{\omega }_c$, whereas $a^{†}{b}_{\omega }^{†}$ and $a{b}_{\omega }$ oscillate at $\omega +{\omega }_c$.

For weak coupling near resonance, the rotating-wave approximation drops those rapidly oscillating pair-creation and pair-annihilation terms and retainsFor a broadband flat coupling $\kappa =\sqrt{\gamma /(2\pi )}$, define the envelope annihilation operator $b(t)=(2\pi {)}^{-1/2}\int b_{\omega }{e}^{-i(\omega -{\omega }_c)t}d\omega$. The Markov approximation extends the detuning integral over the full real line and gives $[b(t),b^{†}(s)]=\delta (t-s)$. Then the cavity-reservoir interaction isThe phases and normalization of the external field fix the sign convention. The creation operators and annihilation operators exchange one excitation between cavity and field, rather than creating or destroying a pair.