Light scattering and localization in an ultracold and dense atomic system

TL;DR

This paper provides a microscopic analysis of light scattering in dense ultracold atomic systems, comparing it with macroscopic models to understand resonance, response, and localization phenomena relevant to quantum technologies.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed microscopic approach to analyze light scattering in dense ultracold atoms, bridging microscopic and macroscopic descriptions.

Findings

Spectral resonance structures are characterized.

Time-dependent optical responses are analyzed.

Light localization effects are discussed.

Abstract

The quantum optical response of high density ultracold atomic systems is critical to a wide range of fundamentally and technically important physical processes. These include quantum image storage, optically based quantum repeaters and ultracold molecule formation. We present here a microscopic analysis of the light scattering on such a system, and we compare it with a corresponding description based on macroscopic Maxwell theory. Results are discussed in the context of the spectral resonance structure, time-dependent response, and the light localization problem.