Space of dark states in Tavis-Cummings model

Abstract

The dark states of a group of two-level atoms in the Tavis-Cummings resonator with zero detuning are considered. In these states, atoms can not emit photons, although they have non-zero energy. They are stable and can serve as a controlled energy reservoir from which photons can be extracted by differentiated effects on atoms, for example, their spatial separation. Dark states are the simplest example of a subspace free of decoherence in the form of a photon flight, and therefore are of interest for quantum computing. It is proved that a) the dimension of the subspace of dark states of atoms is the Catalan numbers, b) in the RWA approximation, any dark state is a linear combination of tensor products of singlet-type states and the ground states of individual atoms. For the exact model, in the case of the same force of interaction of atoms with the field, the same decomposition is true, and only singlets participate in the products and the dark states can neither emit a photon nor absorb it. The proof is based on the method of quantization of the amplitude of states of atomic ensembles, in which the roles of individual atoms are interchangeable. In such an ensemble there is a possibility of micro-causality: the trajectory of each quantum of amplitude can be uniquely assigned.