Description
This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the theory of the interaction between atoms and electromagnetic fields, an area which is central to the investigation of the fundamental concepts of quantum mechanics. The first four chapters describe the different forms of the interaction between atoms and radiation fields. The rest of the book deals with how these interactions lead to the formation of dressed states, in the presence of vacuum fluctuations, as well as in the presence of external fields. Also covered are the role of dressed atoms in quantum measurement theory, and the physical interpretation of vacuum radiative effects. Treating a key field on the boundary between quantum optics and quantum electrodynamics, the book will be of great use to graduate students, as well as to established experimentalists and theorists, in either of these areas.
Chapter
1.12 Free field in terms of field amplitudes
2 The quantum electromagnetic field in the absence of sources
2.1 Canonical quantization in the Coulomb gauge
2.2 Photons and the vacuum state
2.3 Number states and coherent states
2.4 Squeezed states of the field
2.5 Thermal states of the field
2.6 Nonlocalizability of the photon
3 The quantum matter field
3.1 The wave equation for the free particle
3.2 The Klein-Gordon field
3.4 The spinless Schrodinger field
3.5 Gauge invariance and matter fields
4 Electrodynamics in the presence of sources
4.1 Coupled equations of motion
4.2 Minimal coupling Hamiltonian in the Coulomb gauge
4.3 Minimal coupling for a neutral atom
4.4 Multipolar coupling for a neutral atom
4.5 The interaction Hamiltonian in dipole approximation
5 Atoms dressed by a real e.m. field
5.1 Qualitive introduction to dressed atoms
5.3 Atom dressed by a populated cavity mode
5.4 Spontaneous decay of an excited atom in free space
5.5 Resonance fluorescence and dressed atoms
5.6 Radiative forces on atoms
6 Dressing by zero-point fluctuations
6.1 Number of virtual quanta in the ground state
6.2 The physical nature of the virtual cloud
6.3 Self-energy effects and the free electron
6.4 Self-energy effects and energy shifts
6.5 Virtual clouds and excited states
6.6 Van Hove theory of dressed states
7 Energy density around dressed atoms
7.1 Energy density and virtual quanta
7.2 Electric energy density around a two-level atom
7.3 Other energy densities around a two-level atom
7.4 Energy density around a slow free electron
7.5 Energy density around a nonrelativistic hydrogen atom
7.6 Approximate energy density around a hydrogen atom
7.7 Energy density in the Craig-Power model
7.8 Van der Waals forces and virtual energy density
8 Further considerations on the nature of dressed states
8.1 Dressed atoms and the quantum theory of measurement
8.2 The physical interpretation of vacuum radiative effects
Appendix A Multipolar expansion for the vector potential
Appendix B Electric polarization and magnetization of the Schrodinger field
Appendix C Rayleigh-Schrodinger perturbation theory
Appendix D Sum rules for the nonrelativistic hydrogen atom
Appendix E From Gauss system to SI
Appendix F Gauge invariance and field interactions
Appendix G Dressed sources in relativistic QED and in QCD
Appendix H The energy-momentum tensor and Lagrangian density
Appendix I The dressed relativistic hydrogen atom
Appendix J The nonrelativistic Lamb shift in a hydrogenic atom
Atom-Field Interactions and Dressed Atoms
( Cambridge Studies in Modern Optics )
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