Optical realization of the dissipative quantum oscillator

TL;DR

This paper proposes an optical system using a resonator with moving mirrors to simulate a dissipative quantum oscillator, allowing visualization of damped oscillations and wave packet collapse in both classical and quantum regimes.

Contribution

It introduces a novel optical setup that implements the Caldirola-Kanai Hamiltonian for dissipative quantum systems, bridging classical and quantum optical phenomena.

Findings

Visualization of damped oscillations in classical optics

Observation of wave packet collapse in quantum optics

Implementation of dissipative quantum dynamics in an optical resonator

Abstract

An optical realization of the damped quantum oscillator, based on transverse light dynamics in an optical resonator with slowly-moving mirrors, is theoretically suggested. The optical resonator setting provides a simple implementation of the time-dependent Caldirola-Kanai Hamiltonian of the dissipative quantum oscillator, and enables to visualize the effects of damped oscillations in the classical (ray optics) limit and wave packet collapse in the quantum (wave optics) regime.