Effective Field Theory for Rydberg Polaritons

M. J. Gullans, J. D. Thompson, Y. Wang, Q. Y. Liang, V. Vuletić, M. D. Lukin, A. V. Gorshkov

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

33 Scopus citations

Abstract

We develop an effective field theory (EFT) to describe the few- and many-body propagation of one-dimensional Rydberg polaritons. We show that the photonic transmission through the Rydberg medium can be found by mapping the propagation problem to a nonequilibrium quench, where the role of time and space are reversed. We include effective range corrections in the EFT and show that they dominate the dynamics near scattering resonances in the presence of deep bound states. Finally, we show how the long-range nature of the Rydberg-Rydberg interactions induces strong effective N-body interactions between Rydberg polaritons. These results pave the way towards studying nonperturbative effects in quantum field theories using Rydberg polaritons.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number113601
JournalPhysical review letters
Volume117
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 9 2016
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Physics and Astronomy(all)

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