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. 2020 Sep 4;15(9):e0235197.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0235197. eCollection 2020.

Dicke model

Affiliations

Dicke model

Mor M Roses et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

The Dicke model is a fundamental model of quantum optics, which describes the interaction between light and matter. In the Dicke model, the light component is described as a single quantum mode, while the matter is described as a set of two-level systems. When the coupling between the light and matter crosses a critical value, the Dicke model shows a mean-field phase transition to a superradiant phase. This transition belongs to the Ising universality class and was realized experimentally in cavity quantum electrodynamics experiments. Although the superradiant transition bears some analogy with the lasing instability, these two transitions belong to different universality classes.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Schematic plot of the order parameter of the Dicke transition, which is zero in the normal phase and finite in the superradiant phase.
The inset shows the free energy in the normal and superradiant phases, see Eq 5.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Schematic representation of the difference between Dicke superradiance and the superradiant transition of the open Dicke model.
Fig 3
Fig 3
Schematic representation of two schemes to experimentally realize the Dicke model: On the left, the equilibrium approach based on the dipole coupling between the two levels and, on the right, the nonequilibrium approach based on two-photon processes, namely stimulated Raman scattering. Only the latter scheme is used to realize the Dicke model.

References

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