Abstract
The Weisskopf-Wigner theory of spontaneous emission of Chap. 13 is an example of a general class of problems involving the coupling of a small system to a large system. In that case the small system is the atom and the large system is the continuum of modes of the electromagnetic field. When computing the atomic decay rate, we were not interested in the field itself, but only on its effect on the atomic dynamics. Thus we never explicitly computed the field dynamics. Our theory leads to an irreversible decay of the upper state population. At first this should come as a surprise, since our starting equation (the Schrödinger equation) is reversible. Irreversibility results from two main approximations: 1) the assumption that the probability amplitude C a0 (t) varies little during the time interval defined by the inverse bandwidth of the continuum of modes of the electromagnetic field, and 2) the replacement of the remaining non-local time integration in Eq. (13.58) by a δ-function. These choices comprise the Weisskopf-Wigner approximation.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Dalibard, J., J. Dupont-Roc and C. Cohen-Tannoudji (1982), J. Physique 43, 1617.
Gardiner, C. (1980), Handbook of Stochastic Methods, Springer, Berlin.
Lax, M. (1968), Brandeis University Summer Institute Lectures ( 1966 ), Vol II, ed. by M. Chretien, E. P. Gross and S. Deser, Gordon and Breach, New York.
Louisell, W. H. (1973), Quantum Statistical Properties of Radiation, John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Milonni, P. W. and W. A. Smith (1975), Phys. Rev. A11, 814.
Risken, H. (1984), The Fokker-Planck Equation, Springer Verlag, Heidelberg.
Sargent, M. III, M. O. Scully, and W. E. Lamb, Jr. (1974), Laser Physics,Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Reading, MA. See especially Chaps. 15 and 16.
Swain, S. (1981), J. Phys. B: Math. Gen. 14, 2577.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1991 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Meystre, P., Sargent, M. (1991). System-Reservoir Interactions. In: Elements of Quantum Optics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-11654-8_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-11654-8_14
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-662-11656-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-11654-8
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive