Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics: The Strange Theory of Light in a Box

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

1 Introduction

1.1 What is light?

1.1.1 Geometrical optics

1.1.2 Wave optics

1.1.3 Classical electrodynamics and relativity

1.1.4 Quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics

1.2 A brief history of cavity QED

1.3 A map of the book

1.4 How to read this book

2 Fiat Lux!

2.1 How to quantize a theory

2.2 Why the radiation field is special

2.3 What is a cavity?

2.3.1 What is resonance?

2.3.2 Confinement is the key

2.4 Canonical quantization of the radiation field

2.4.1 Quantization in a cavity

2.4.2 Quantization in free space

2.5 The Casimir force

2.5.1 Zero-point potential energy

2.5.2 Maxwell stress tensor

2.5.3 The vacuum catastrophe

Recommended reading

Problems

3 The photon's wavefunction

3.1 Position in relativistic quantum mechanics

3.2 Extreme quantum theory of light with a twist

3.3 The configuration space problem

3.4 Back to vector notation

3.5 The limit of vanishing rest mass

3.6 Second quantization

Recommended reading

Problems

4 A box of photons

4.1 The classical limit

4.1.1 Coherent states

4.1.2 The density matrix

4.1.3 The diagonal coherent-state representation

4.2 Squeezed states

4.2.1 The squeezing operator

4.2.2 Generating squeezed states

4.2.3 Geometrical picture

4.2.4 Homodyne detection

Recommended reading

Problems

5 Let matter be!

5.1 A single point dipole

5.2 An arbitrary charge distribution

5.3 Matter–radiation coupling and gauge invariance

Recommended reading

6 Spontaneous emission

6.1 Emission in free space

6.2 Emission in a cavity ...