Dynamical Casimir Effect in cavity with N-level detector or N-1 two-level atoms

TL;DR

This paper investigates photon generation via the Dynamical Casimir Effect in cavities with N-level detectors or N-1 two-level atoms, revealing how photon growth depends on the number of levels or atoms, with analytical results for large N.

Contribution

It introduces a model for the Dynamical Casimir Effect with N-level detectors and derives analytical results in the large N limit, expanding understanding of photon generation mechanisms.

Findings

Photon growth is steady for odd N, limited for even N.

Maximum photon number depends on N, with at most N-2 photons for even N.

Analytical results obtained in the large N limit.

Abstract

We study the photon generation from vacuum via the Dynamical Casimir Effect in a cavity containing a N-level detector in equally-spaced resonant ladder configuration or N-1 identical resonant two-level atoms. If the modulation frequency equals exactly twice the unperturbed cavity frequency, the photon growth goes on steadily for odd N, while for even N at most N-2 photons can be generated. This finding is corroborated by numerical calculations. In the limit $N\to\infty$ we obtain the harmonic oscillator model of the detector, which admits analytical results.