Benchmarking quantum phase-space methods for near-resonant light propagation

TL;DR

This paper compares phase-space methods for modeling near-resonant light propagation in atomic media, highlighting the strengths and limitations of the truncated Wigner and positive P representations in different interaction regimes.

Contribution

It provides a systematic benchmarking of the truncated Wigner and positive P phase-space methods for light-atom interactions, including the effects of reservoirs.

Findings

Both methods capture main light-matter dynamics

Truncated Wigner shows deviations at strong interactions

Reservoir noise impacts approximation accuracy

Abstract

We study the dynamics of light interacting with a near-resonant atomic medium using the truncated Wigner and positive P phase-space representations. The atomic degrees of freedom are described using the Jordan-Schwinger mapping. The dynamics is first analyzed under unitary evolution and subsequently in the presence of an optical reservoir. While both approaches capture the main features of the light-matter dynamics, we find that the truncated Wigner approximation exhibits noticeable deviations for stronger interaction strengths and when reservoir-induced noise becomes significant.