Photon decay in circuit quantum electrodynamics
Year: 2020
Type: preprint
Abstract: Light does not typically scatter light, as witnessed by the linearity of Maxwell's equations. We constructed a superconducting circuit, in which microwave photons have well-defined energy and momentum, but their lifetime is finite due to decay into lower energy photons. The inelastic photon-photon interaction originates from quantum phase-slip fluctuation in a single Josephson junction and has no analogs in quantum optics. Instead, the surprisingly high decay rate is explained by mapping the system to a Luttinger liquid containing an impurity. Our result connects circuit quantum electrodynamics to the topic of boundary quantum field theories in two dimensions, influential to both high-energy and condensed matter physics. The photon lifetime data is a rare example of a verified and useful quantum many-body simulation.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Roman Kuzmin, Nicholas Grabon, Nitish Mehta, Amir Burshtein, Moshe Goldstein, Manuel Houzet, L. I. Glazman, Vladimir Manucharyan
Language: English
Subfield: Artificial Intelligence
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3091160355