Role reversal in a Bose-condensed optomechanical system

Abstract

We analyze the optomechanics-like properties of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) trapped inside an optical resonator and driven by both a classical and a quantized light field. We find that this system exhibits a nature of role reversal between the matter-wave field and the quantized light field. As a result, the matter wave field now plays the role of the quantized light field, and the quantized light field behaves like a movable mirror, in contrast to the familiar situation in BEC-based cavity optomechanics [Brennecke et al., Science 322, 235 (2008); Murch et al., Nat. Phys. 4, 561 (2008)]. We demonstrate that this system can lead to the creation of a variety of nonclassical matter-wave fields, in particular cat states, and discuss several possible protocols to measure their Wigner function.