Paper detail

Grassmann Variables and the Jaynes-Cummings Model

This paper shows that phase space methods using a positive P type distribution function involving both c-number variables (for the cavity mode) and Grassmann variables (for the two level atom) can be used to treat the Jaynes-Cummings model. Although it is a Grassmann function, the distribution function is equivalent to six c-number functions of the two bosonic variables. Experimental quantities are given as bosonic phase space integrals involving the six functions. A Fokker-Planck equation involving both left and right Grassmann differentiation can be obtained for the distribution function, and is equivalent to six coupled equations for the six c-number functions. The approach used involves choosing the canonical form of the (non-unique) positive P distribution function, where the correspondence rules for bosonic operators are non-standard and hence the Fokker-Planck equation is also unusual. Initial conditions, such as for initially uncorrelated states, are used to determine the initial distribution function. Transformations to new bosonic variables rotating at the cavity frequency enables the six coupled equations for the new c-number functions (also equivalent to the canonical Grassmann distribution function) to be solved analytically, based on an ansatz from a 1980 paper by Stenholm. It is then shown that the distribution function is the same as that determined from the well-known solution based on coupled equations for state vector amplitudes of atomic and n-photon product states. The treatment of the simple two fermion mode Jaynes-Cummings model is a useful test case for the future development of phase space Grassmann distribution functional methods for multi-mode fermionic applications in quantum-atom optics.