The Quantum Nature of Light : From Photon States to Quantum Fluids of Light

A quantum description of light is central to many aspects of the modern quantum technological revolution and key to our understanding and exploitation of photon-matter interactions, interpretation of entanglement, teleportation and quantum metrology. It underpins our comprehension of the quantum nature of information and how we can formulate, manipulate, and process it using physical systems operating on quantum mechanical principles, and a pathway to the building of quantum computing devices. This book gives a broad perspective on quantum light phenomena. It goes beyond traditional quantum optics, to include quantum fluids of light and the complete electromagnetic vacuum. Important topics for students and researchers working in a large range of areas in the modern quantum technological revolution, from single photon processes to ultra-intense laser physics. This includes atom manipulation with photons, quantum computation, ultrafast lasers, Bose-Einstein condensation of photons, superfluid light, laboratory astrophysics, and the exploration of QED vacuum using ultra-intense lasers. It also includes the axion-photon coupling, which is relevant to the search for dark matter. The first part of the book includes basic electromagnetic field quantisation, the characterisation of quantum photon states and elementary photon-atom interactions. Secondly, quantum fluids of light are explored such as recent areas as Bose-Einstein condensation, light vortices and superfluid light. Finally, the last section of the book focuses on a more complete description of quantum vacuum, which includes electron-positron states. The book is intended to make the bridge between these three somewhat distinct aspects of the quantum states of light. The audience for the book includes researchers and advanced students in quantum technology including quantum optics, metrology and computing. Key Features: Up to date review of the field, including quantum fluids of light Extensive coverage of the topic Key and central theme for modern quantum science and technology Written by a respected expert in the field PRELIMS.pdf Preface Author biography J T Mendonça CH001.pdf Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Motivation 1.2 Photons, waves and fields 1.3 A necessary note References CH002.pdf Chapter 2 Field quantisation 2.1 Quantum mechanical background 2.1.1 Schrödinger picture 2.1.2 Representations 2.1.3 Heisenberg picture 2.1.4 Wigner function 2.2 Harmonic oscillator 2.2.1 Energy levels 2.2.2 Wavefunctions 2.3 Electromagnetic field quantisation 2.3.1 Maxwell’s equations 2.3.2 Field operators 2.4 Canonical quantisation 2.4.1 Variational principle 2.4.2 Lagrangian density 2.5 Photon wavefunction 2.5.1 Riemann–Silverstein vector 2.5.2 Spinor field 2.6 Quantisation in a medium References CH003.pdf Chapter 3 Coherence 3.1 Coherent states 3.1.1 Definition 3.1.2 Overcompleteness 3.1.3 Uncertainties 3.1.4 Displaced vacuum 3.2 Field representations 3.2.1 P-representation 3.2.2 Q-representation 3.2.3 W-representation 3.2.4 G-representation 3.3 Squeezed states 3.4 Correlations 3.4.1 Classical correlations 3.4.2 Quantum correlations 3.4.3 Intensity correlations 3.5 Photon entanglement References CH004.pdf Chapter 4 Photon–atom interactions 4.1 Hamiltonians 4.2 Quantum Rabi model 4.2.1 Basic model 4.2.2 Dressed atom 4.3 Three-level atom 4.3.1 Dark states 4.3.2 Electromagnetic induced transparency 4.4 Spontaneous emission 4.5 Reduced density method 4.5.1 Master equation 4.5.2 Atom in a reservoir 4.6 Resonant scattering References CH005.pdf Chapter 5 Boundary effects 5.1 Cavity losses 5.2 Atom in a cavity 5.3 Beam splitters 5.4 Time refraction 5.5 Temporal beam splitters 5.6 Time-crystals 5.7 Casimir force 5.8 Space-time symmetries 5.8.1 Ray optics 5.8.2 Super-luminal 5.8.3 Vacuum processes 5.9 Curved space-time References CH006.pdf Chapter 6 Laser 6.1 Balance equations 6.1.1 Thermal radiation 6.1.2 Einstein coefficients 6.1.3 Optical pumping 6.2 Laser cavity 6.2.1 Cavity modes 6.2.2 Mode losses 6.3 Phenomenological laser model 6.4 Relaxation oscillations 6.5 Short laser pulses 6.5.1 Q-switching 6.5.2 Mode locking 6.6 Amplified spontaneous emission 6.7 Susceptibility 6.8 Semi-classical laser theory 6.9 Quantum laser theory References CH007.pdf Chapter 7 Bose–Einstein condensates 7.1 Basic concepts 7.1.1 Critical temperature 7.1.2 Mean-field description 7.1.3 Elementary excitations 7.1.4 Vortices 7.1.5 BEC in lower dimensions 7.2 Photon condensation 7.2.1 Basic processes 7.2.2 Temporal evolution 7.3 Condensation in plasma 7.3.1 Compton cooling 7.3.2 Photon interactions 7.3.3 Photon–plasmon coupling 7.4 Polariton condensation 7.5 BEC–laser transition 7.6 Photon kinetics References CH008.pdf Chapter 8 Collective atomic emission 8.1 Superradiance 8.2 Collective recoil emission 8.3 Quantum recoil 8.4 Cyclotron superradiance References CH009.pdf Chapter 9 Light vortices 9.1 Photon OAM 9.2 Light springs and fractional vorticity 9.3 POAM in optical media 9.4 Quantum optics with OAM References CH010.pdf Chapter 10 Superfluid light 10.1 Fluid equations of light 10.2 Superfluid turbulence 10.3 A tale of two fluids 10.4 Superfluid currents References CH011.pdf Chapter 11 Basic QED concepts 11.1 Klein–Gordon equation 11.2 Dirac equation 11.3 Volkov states 11.4 Quantisation of the Dirac field 11.5 Euler–Heisenberg Lagrangian References CH012.pdf Chapter 12 Particle pair creation 12.1 Klein paradox 12.2 Temporal Klein model 12.3 Time-varying fields 12.4 Nonlinear trident process References CH013.pdf Chapter 13 Nonlinear vacuum 13.1 Vacuum birefringence 13.2 Photon acceleration 13.3 Photon–photon scattering 13.4 Vacuum undulator 13.5 Superradiant vacuum References CH014.pdf Chapter 14 The axions 14.1 Axion–photon coupling 14.2 Axion polariton 14.3 Axion beam instability 14.4 Axion wakes 14.5 Shinning through wall References APPA.pdf Chapter A.1 Schrödinger equation A.2 Representations A.3 Evolution operator A.4 Quantum pictures A.5 Density operator A.6 Glauber formula APPB.pdf Chapter B.1 Particle in a potential B.2 Relativistic particle B.3 Charged particle B.4 System of charged particles B.5 Scalar field B.6 Electromagnetic field B.7 Dirac field B.8 Axion–photon field APPC.pdf Chapter APPD.pdf Chapter This book provides an overview of quantum light phenomena and extends the traditional Quantum Optics, to include quantum fluids of light and the complete electromagnetic vacuum. The first part of the book includes basic electromagnetic field quantisation, the characterisation of quantum photon states and elementary photon-atom interactions. Secondly, quantum fluids of light are explored such as recent areas as Bose-Einstein condensation, light vortices and superfluid light. Finally, the last section of the book focusses on a more complete description of quantum vacuum, which includes electron-positron states. The book is intended to make the bridge between these three somewhat distinct aspects of the quantum states of light. The main audiences for the book include researchers and advanced students in quantum technology including quantum optics, metrology and computing.Key Features:Up to date review of the field, including quantum fluids of lightExtensive coverage of the topicKey and central theme for modern quantum science and technologyWritten by a respected expert in the field