Graduate Student Seminar I Richard Lopp, Single-mode approximation and dimensional reduction in optical cavities

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Speaker

Richard Lopp | Applied Math, University of Waterloo

Title

Single-mode approximation and dimensional reduction in optical cavities

Abstract

Performing light-atom experiments in cavities is of great interest for a plethora of reasons, fundamental and technological, in quantum optics, quantum computing and information theory. Typically, simplifications like the single-mode approximation or a dimensional reduction are performed to reduce the computational complexity. In this talk, I wish to discuss scenarios when those approximations cannot be employed. I will present how the geometric properties of the cavity allow to rewrite the quantum field in terms of “subfields” which are related to the spectrum of the cavity's Laplacian. Studying this spectrum informs then if, for instance, a thin optical fibre can indeed be modelled as a one-dimensional line.