The interaction between light and matter is one of the oldest research areas of quantum mechanics, and a field that just keeps on delivering new insights and applications. With the arrival of cavity quantum electrodynamics one can now achieve strong light-matter couplings which form the basis of most implementations of quantum technology. This has brought back into center stage one of the oldest approximations of quantum theory, the Rotating Wave Approximation (RWA).
Now, Prof. Burgarth and collaborators have developed new tools to understand for which experimental parameters the RWA is not good enough to match the demands of scalable quantum technology. Surprisingly they show this not only depends on the ratio of the light-matter coupling strength and the oscillator frequency, but also on the average number of photons in the initial state. Their finding also plays an important fundamental role, as it allows us to understand resonance in quantum physics.
For more information, see their publication in Quantum:
Taming the Rotating Wave Approximation
Daniel Burgarth, Paolo Facchi, Robin Hillier, and Marilena Ligabò
Quantum 8, 1262 (2024)
The interaction between light and matter is one of the oldest research areas of quantum mechanics, and a field that just keeps on delivering new insights and applications. With the arrival of cavity quantum electrodynamics one can now achieve strong light-matter couplings which form the basis of most implementations of quantum technology. This has brought back into center stage one of the oldest approximations of quantum theory, the Rotating Wave Approximation (RWA).
Now, Prof. Burgarth and collaborators have developed new tools to understand for which experimental parameters the RWA is not good enough to match the demands of scalable quantum technology. Surprisingly they show this not only depends on the ratio of the light-matter coupling strength and the oscillator frequency, but also on the average number of photons in the initial state. Their finding also plays an important fundamental role, as it allows us to understand resonance in quantum physics.
For more information, see their publication in Quantum:
Taming the Rotating Wave Approximation
Daniel Burgarth, Paolo Facchi, Robin Hillier, and Marilena Ligabò
Quantum 8, 1262 (2024)