Spontaneous emission of polaritons from a Bose-Einstein condensate

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the formation of polaritons in a Bose-Einstein condensate affects spontaneous emission, revealing an avoided crossing that modifies emission rates similarly to a photonic band gap.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of polariton-induced avoided crossing in BECs and its impact on spontaneous emission rates, a novel insight into light-matter interactions in quantum gases.

Findings

Polaritons form in the condensate, causing an avoided crossing in the photon spectrum.

The avoided crossing acts like a photonic band gap, altering emission rates.

Spontaneous emission is significantly modified by polariton formation.

Abstract

We study the spontaneous emission of a partially excited Bose-Einstein condensate composed of two-level atoms. The formation of polaritons induced by the ground-state part of the condensate leads to an avoided crossing in the photon spectrum. This avoided crossing acts similarly to a photonic band gap and modifies the spontaneous emission rate.