Comprehensive theory of the relative phase in atom-field interactions
J. Delgado, E. C. Yustas, Luis Lorenzo Sánchez-Soto, A. B. Klimov · Physical Review A · 2001
We explore the role played by the quantum relative phase in a well-known model of atom-field interaction, namely, the Dicke model. We introduce an appropriate polar decomposition of the atom-field relative amplitudes that leads to a truly Hermitian relative-phase operator, whose eigenstates correctly describe the phase properties, as we demonstrate by studying the positive operator-valued measure derived from it. We find the probability distribution for this relative phase and, by resorting to a numerical procedure, we study its time evolution.