1/N-expansion for the Dicke model and the decoherence program

Marco Frasca

Published 2003-12-26, updated 2004-04-25Version 3

An analysis of the Dicke model, N two-level atoms interacting with a single radiation mode, is done using the Holstein-Primakoff transformation. The main aim of the paper is to show that, changing the quantization axis with respect to the common usage, it is possible to prove a general result either for N or the coupling constant going to infinity for the exact solution of the model. This completes the analysis, known in the current literature, with respect to the same model in the limit of N and volume going to infinity, keeping the density constant. For the latter the proper axis of quantization is given by the Hamiltonian of the two-level atoms and for the former the proper axis of quantization is defined by the interaction. The relevance of this result relies on the observation that a general measurement apparatus acts using electromagnetic interaction and so, one can states that the thermodynamic limit is enough to grant the appearance of classical effects. Indeed, recent experimental results give first evidence that superposition states disappear interacting with an electromagnetic field having a large number of photons.