The problem of a collection of two-level atoms interacting with a single-mode classical electromagnetic field is considered. It is found that the model with an initial population inversion exhibits chaotic behavior that becomes stronger for higher atomic number density. The chaos is characterized by Fourier analysis and the maximal Lyapunov exponent. In the rotating-wave approximation, however, there is no prediction of chaos.
We consider a single quantum state coupled equally to each of a set of evenly spaced quasicontinuum (QC) states. We obtain a delay differential equation for the initial-state probability amplitude, and this equation is solved analytically. When the QC-level spacing goes to zero, the initial-state probability decays exactly exponentially.For finite QC-level spacings, however, there are recurrences of initial-state probability. We discuss Tolman's "quantum-mechanical spreading" of probability and also a classical analog of our model.
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