Quantum corrections to the semiclassical collective dynamics in the Tavis-Cummings model

Abstract

The Tavis-Cummings model (the Dicke model treated in the rotating-wave approximation), describing many two-level systems coupled to a single bosonic mode, has been long known to show collective semiclassical oscillations when prepared in an inverted state, with all two-level systems excited and the bosonic mode is empty. This paper discusses how the quantum dynamics approaches this semiclassical result for large numbers of two-level systems, focusing on how the eigenvalues approach their semiclassical limit. The approach to the semiclassical result is found to be slow, scaling like a power of the logarithm of the system size. Considering also the effect of weak detuning between the two-level system and the bosonic field, quantum corrections are again found to decay slowly with system size, such that for a fixed detuning, the quantum effects of detuning are greater than the classical effect.