Thermodynamic QED Coherence in Condensed Matter: Microscopic Basis of Thermal Superradiance

Abstract

Electromagnetic superradiant field coherence exists in a condensed matter system if the electromagnetic field oscillators undergo a mean displacement. Transitions into thermal states with ordered superradiant phases have been shown to theoretically exist in Dicke-Preparata models. The theoretical validity of these models for condensed matter has been called into question due to non-relativistic diamagnetic terms in the electronic Hamiltonian. The microscopic bases of Dicke-Preparata thermal superradiance for realistic macroscopic systems are explored in this work. The impossibility of diaelectric correlations in condensed matter systems (via the Landau-Lifshitz theorem) provides a strong theoretical basis for understanding the physical reality of condensed matter thermodynamic superradiant phases.