%0 Journal Article
%T Multistable particle-field dynamics in cavity-generated optical lattices
%A Dominik J. Winterauer
%A Wolfgang Niedenzu
%A Helmut Ritsch
%J Physics
%D 2015
%I arXiv
%R 10.1103/PhysRevA.91.053829
%X Polarizable particles trapped in a resonator-sustained optical-lattice potential generate strong position-dependent backaction on the intracavity field. In the quantum regime particles in different energy bands are connected to different intracavity light intensities and optical-lattice depths. This generates a highly nonlinear coupled particle-field dynamics. For a given pump strength and detuning, a factorizing mean-field approach predicts several self-consistent stationary solutions of strongly distinct photon numbers and motional states. Quantum Monte Carlo wavefunction simulations of the master equation confirm these predictions and reveal complex multi-modal photon-number and particle-momentum distributions. Using larger nanoparticles in such a setup thus constitutes a well-controllable playground to study nonlinear quantum dynamics and the buildup of macroscopic quantum superpositions at the quantum-classical boundary.
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/1503.07044v2