Spin and relativistic motion of bound states

The wave functions of moving bound states may be expected to contract in the direction of motion, in analogy to a rigid rod in classical special relativity, when the constituents are at equal (ordinary) time. Indeed, the Lorentz contraction of wave functions is often appealed to in qualitative discussions. However, only few field theory studies exist of equal-time wave functions in motion. In this thesis I use the Bethe-Salpeter formalism to study the wave function of a weakly bound state such as a hydrogen atom or positronium in a general frame. The wave function of the e^-e^+ component of positronium indeed turns out to Lorentz contract both in 1+1 and in 3+1 dimensional quantum electrodynamics, whereas the next-to-leading e^-e^+\gamma Fock component of the 3+1 dimensional theory deviates from classical contraction. The second topic of this thesis concerns single spin asymmetries measured in scattering on polarized bound states. Such spin asymmetries have so far mainly been analyzed using the twist expansion of perturbative QCD. I note that QCD vacuum effects may give rise to a helicity flip in the soft rescattering of the struck quark, and that this would cause a nonvanishing spin asymmetry in \ell p^\uparrow -> \ell' + \pi + X in the Bjorken limit. An analogous asymmetry may arise in p p^\uparrow -> \pi + X from Pomeron-Odderon interference, if the Odderon has a helicity-flip coupling. Finally, I study the possibility that the large single spin asymmetry observed in p p^\uparrow -> \pi(x_F,k_\perp) + X when the pion carries a high momentum fraction x_F of the polarized proton momentum arises from coherent effects involving the entire polarized bound state.

Infrared divergences and confinement in massive (2+1)-dimensional QED

In (2+1)-dimensional quantum electrodynamics with massless photons and massive matter fields, it is shown that the mass renormalization of the latter is infrared divergent at one loop. This result remains unchanged at two loops. A simple argument based on a similar divergence of the Coulomb potential leads us to conjecture that charged states are not observable in this model. This argument holds in 1+1 dimensions also.

Wheeler-Feynman absorber revisited: a useful technique to calculate decay rates and lifetimes in small scale optical systems

The Wheeler-Feynman (WF) absorber theory of radiation though no more of interest in explaining self interaction of an electron, can be very useful in today's research in small scale optical systems. The significance of the WF absorber is the use of time-symmetrical solution of Maxwell's equations as opposed to only the retarded solution. The radiative coupling of emitters to nano wires in the near field and change in their lifetimes due to small mode volume enclosures have been elucidated with the retarded solutions before. These solutions have also been shown to agree with quantum electrodynamics, thus allowing for classical electromagnetic approaches in such problems. It is here assumed that the radiative coupling of the emitter with a body is in proportion to its contribution to the classical force of radiative reaction as derived in the WF absorber theory. Representing such nano structures as a partial WF absorber acting on the emitter makes the computations considerably easier than conventional electromagnetic solutions for full boundary conditions.

Spontaneous Lorentz violation: the case of infrared QED

It is by now clear that the infrared sector of quantum electrodynamics (QED) has an intriguingly complex structure. Based on earlier pioneering work on this subject, two of us recently proposed a simple modification of QED by constructing a generalization of the U(1) charge group of QED to the ``Sky'' group incorporating the well-known spontaneous Lorentz violation due to infrared photons, but still compatible in particular with locality (Balachandran and Vaidya, Eur Phys J Plus 128:118, 2013). It was shown that the ``Sky'' group is generated by the algebra of angle-dependent charges and a study of its superselection sectors has revealed a manifest description of spontaneous breaking of the Lorentz symmetry. We further elaborate this approach here and investigate in some detail the properties of charged particles dressed by the infrared photons. We find that Lorentz violation due to soft photons may be manifestly codified in an angle-dependent fermion mass, modifying therefore the fermion dispersion relations. The fact that the masses of the charged particles are not Lorentz invariant affects their spin content, and time dilation formulas for decays should also get corrections.

Photon-photon scattering in a plasma channel

The Heisenberg-Euler correction due to photon-photon scattering, a still unverified quantum electrodynamics effect, on electromagnetic wave interaction inside a plasma channel is investigated theoretically. From a signal laser beam in the relativistic overdense plasma channel, photon-photon scattering can produce a detectable output beam of different frequency and polarization. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.

Photoelectron angular distributions from above threshold ionization of hydrogen atoms in strong laser fields

We apply a scattering theory of nonperturbative quantum electrodynamics to study the photoelectron angular distributions (PADs) of a hydrogen atom irradiated by linearly polarized laser light. The calculated PADs show main lobes and jetlike structure. Previous experimental studies reveal that in a set of above-threshold-ionization peaks when the absorbed-photon number increases by one, the jet number also increases by one. Our study confirms this experimental observation. Our calculations further predict that in some cases three more jets may appear with just one-more-photon absorption. With consideration of laser-frequency change, one less jet may also appear with one-more-photon absorption. The jetlike structure of PADs is due to the maxima of generalized phased Bessel functions, not an indication of the quantum number of photoelectron angular momentum states.

Anomaly in photoelectron angular distributions

The recently observed anomaly in photoelectron angular distributions (PADs), the disappearance of the main lobes of PADs which should be usually in the direction of laser polarization, is reinterpreted as a minimum of generalized Bessel functions in the laser-polarization direction with the theory of nonperturbative quantum electrodynamics. The reinterpretation has no artificial fitting parameters and explains more features of the experimentally observed PADs, in contrast to the existing interpretation in which the anomaly is interpreted as a quantum interference of angular momentum partial waves. Some hierarchy anomalies are predicted for further experimental observations.

Parity-dependent State Engineering and Tomography in the ultrastrong coupling regime

Reaching the strong coupling regime of light-matter interaction has led to an impressive development in fundamental quantum physics and applications to quantum information processing. Latests advances in different quantum technologies, like superconducting circuits or semiconductor quantum wells, show that the ultrastrong coupling regime (USC) can also be achieved, where novel physical phenomena and potential computational benefits have been predicted. Nevertheless, the lack of effective decoupling mechanism in this regime has so far hindered control and measurement processes. Here, we propose a method based on parity symmetry conservation that allows for the generation and reconstruction of arbitrary states in the ultrastrong coupling regime of light-matter interactions. Our protocol requires minimal external resources by making use of the coupling between the USC system and an ancillary two-level quantum system.

Plans for laser spectroscopy of trapped cold hydrogen-like HCI

Laser spectroscopy studies are being prepared to measure the 1s ground state hyperfine splitting in trapped cold highly charged ions. The purpose of such experiments is to test quantum electrodynamics in the strong electric field regime. These experiments form part of the HITRAP project at GSI. A brief review of the planned experiments is presented. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Light-matter interaction in a microcavity-controlled graphene transistor

Graphene has extraordinary electronic and optical properties and holds great promise for applications in photonics and optoelectronics. Demonstrations including high-speed photodetectors, optical modulators, plasmonic devices, and ultrafast lasers have now been reported. More advanced device concepts would involve photonic elements such as cavities to control light-matter interaction in graphene. Here we report the first monolithic integration of a graphene transistor and a planar, optical microcavity. We find that the microcavity-induced optical confinement controls the efficiency and spectral selection of photocurrent generation in the integrated graphene device. A twenty-fold enhancement of photocurrent is demonstrated. The optical cavity also determines the spectral properties of the electrically excited thermal radiation of graphene. Most interestingly, we find that the cavity confinement modifies the electrical transport characteristics of the integrated graphene transistor. Our experimental approach opens up a route towards cavity-quantum electrodynamics on the nanometre scale with graphene as a current-carrying intra-cavity medium of atomic thickness. © 2012 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.

Generation of a supersinglet of three three-level atoms in cavity QED

We propose a scheme to generate a supersinglet of three three-level atoms in microwave cavity quantum electrodynamics based on the resonant atom-cavity interaction. In the scheme, three three-level atoms in suitable initial states are sequentially sent through three cavities originally prepared in their vacuum states. After an appropriate atom-cavity interaction process, in the subsequent measurement on the third cavity field the atoms are projected onto the desired supersinglet. The practical feasibility of this method is discussed.

Radiation of dressed excitons in the semiconductor microcavity

In this paper, we introduced the dressed exciton model of the semiconductor micro-cavity device. In the semiconductor micro cavity of vertical-cavity surface-emission device, the excitons first coupled with the cavity through an intra-electromagnetic field and formed the dressed excitons. Then these dressed excitons decayed into the vacuum cavity optical mode, as a multiparticle process. Through the quantum electrodynamics method, the dipole emission density and system energy decayed equation were obtained. And it was predicted that the excitons decay into a very narrow mode when the exciton-cavity coupling becomes strong enough.

Evanescent field sensing: optical nanofibres, whispering-gallery-mode microspherical and microbubble resonators

In this thesis, the evanescent field sensing techniques of tapered optical nanofibres and microspherical resonators are investigated. This includes evanescent field spectroscopy of a silica nanofibre in a rubidium vapour; thermo-optical tuning of Er:Yb co-doped phosphate glass microspheres; optomechanical properties of microspherical pendulums; and the fabrication and characterisation of borosilicate microbubble resonators. Doppler-broadened and sub-Doppler absorption spectroscopic techniques are performed around the D2 transition (780.24 nm) of rubidium using the evanescent field produced at the waist of a tapered nanofibre with input probe powers as low as 55 nW. Doppler-broadened Zeeman shifts and a preliminary dichroic atomic vapour laser lock (DAVLL) line shape are also observed via the nanofibre waist with an applied magnetic field of 60 G. This device has the potential for laser frequency stabilisation while also studying the effects of atom-surface interactions. A non-invasive thermo-optical tuning technique of Er:Yb co-doped microspheres to specific arbitrary wavelengths is demonstrated particularly to 1294 nm and the 5S1/2F=3 to 5P3/2Fʹ=4 laser cooling transition of 85Rb. Reversible tuning ranges of up to 474 GHz and on resonance cavity timescales on the order of 100 s are reported. This procedure has prospective applications for sensing a variety of atomic or molecular species in a cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) experiments. The mechanical characteristics of a silica microsphere pendulum with a relatively low spring constant of 10-4 Nm-1 are explored. A novel method of frequency sweeping the motion of the pendulum to determine its natural resonance frequencies while overriding its sensitivity to environmental noise is proposed. An estimated force of 0.25 N is required to actuate the pendulum by a displacement of (1-2) μm. It is suggested that this is of sufficient magnitude to be experienced between two evanescently coupled microspheres (photonic molecule) and enable spatial trapping of the micropendulum. Finally, single-input borosilicate microbubble resonators with diameters <100 μm are fabricated using a CO2 laser. Optical whispering gallery mode spectra are observed via evanescent coupling with a tapered fibre. A red-shift of (4-22) GHz of the resonance modes is detected when the hollow cavity was filled with nano-filtered water. A polarisation conversion effect, with an efficiency of 10%, is observed when the diameter of the coupling tapered fibre waist is varied. This effect is also achieved by simply varying the polarisation of the input light in the tapered fibre where the efficiency is optimised to 92%. Thus, the microbubble device acts as a reversible band-pass to band-stop optical filter for cavity-QED, integrated solid-state and semiconductor circuit applications.

Cross-Kerr-based information transfer processes

The realization of nonclassical states is an important task for many applications of quantum information processing. Usually, properly tailored interactions, different from goal to goal, are considered in order to accomplish specific tasks within the general framework of quantum state engineering. In this paper, we remark on the flexibility of a cross-Kerr nonlinear coupling in hybrid systems as an important ingredient in the engineering of nonclassical states. The general scenario we consider is the implementation of high cross-Kerr nonlinearity in cavity-quantum electrodynamics. In this context, we discuss the possibility of performing entanglement transfer and swapping between matter qubits and light fields initially prepared in separable coherent states. The recently introduced concept of entanglement reciprocation is also considered and shown to be possible with our scheme. We reinterpret some of our results in terms of applications of a generalized Ising interaction to systems of different nature.

Concentration and purification of entanglement for qubit systems with ancillary cavity fields

We propose schemes for entanglement concentration and purification for qubit systems encoded in flying atomic pairs. We use cavity-quantum electrodynamics as an illustrative setting within which our proposals can be implemented. Maximally entangled pure states of qubits can be produced as a result of our protocols. In particular, the concentration protocol yields Bell states with the largest achievable theoretical probability while the purification scheme produces arbitrarily pure Bell states. The requirements for the implementation of these protocols are modest, within the state of the art, and we address all necessary steps in two specific setups based on experimentally mature microwave technology.