Electron dynamics induced by quantum cat-state light

Abstract

We present an effective theory for describing electron dynamics driven by an optical external field in a Schr\"{o}dinger's cat state. We show that the electron density matrix evolves as an average over trajectories $\{\rho_\alpha\}$ weighted by the Sudarshan--Glauber $P$ distribution $P(\alpha)$ in the weak light--matter coupling regime. Each trajectory obeys an equation of motion, $\mathrm{i} \partial_t\rho_\alpha=\mathcal{H}_{\alpha} \rho_\alpha-\rho_\alpha\mathcal{H}_{\alpha}$, where an effective Hamiltonian $\mathcal{H}_{\alpha}$ becomes non-Hermitian due to quantum interference of light. The optical quantum interference is transferred to electrons through the asymmetric action between the ket and bra state vectors in $\rho_{\alpha}$. This non-Hermitian dynamics differs from the conventional one observed in open quantum systems, described by $\mathrm{i} \partial_t\rho=\mathcal{H}\rho-\rho \mathcal{H}^\dagger$, which has complex conjugation in the second term. We confirm that the results of the effective theory agree with those of full electron--photon system simulations for the few-electron Dicke model, demonstrating experimental accessibility to exotic non-Hermitian dynamics.