Two-level systems coupled to an oscillator: Excitation transfer and energy exchange

Abstract

We consider models in which two sets of matched two-level systems are coupled to a common oscillator in the case where the oscillator energy is small relative to the two-level transition energies. Since the two sets of two-level systems are coupled indirectly through the oscillator, excitation transfer from one set of two-level systems to the other is possible. In addition, the excitation energy from the two-level systems may be exchanged with the oscillator coherently, even though the oscillator energy may be orders of magnitude smaller than the two-level system transition energy. In the lossless case, we demonstrate these effects numerically, and also use an approximate diagonalization to show that these effects are expected from the model Hamiltonian. We augment the model to include loss effects, and show that loss enhances the excitation transfer effect by breaking the severe cancelation between different paths that occurs in the lossless case. We describe a simple approximate model wavefunction appropriate when the loss increases rapidly with energy. Within this model approximation, we present numerical and analytical results for excitation transfer and energy transfer rates, showing that they are greatly increased. Our study of these models is motivated in part by claims of excess heat production in electrochemical experiments in heavy water. We examine the question of whether the rates associated with this kind of model are sufficiently large to be relevant to the experimental claims. We find that consistency is possible given recent experimental results showing strong screening effects in low energy deuteron-deuteron fusion experiments in metals.