Methods in Theoretical Quantum Optics

Abstract This book provides a firm grounding in those techniques needed to derive analytic solutions to relevant model problems. The book begins with a brief review of the mathematical foundations of quantum theory, especially those relevant to the description of atoms and optical fields and their coherent interactions. The following chapters treat the operators and states required, the rules for manipulating these, and the techniques commonly employed for calculating their statistical properties. A chapter is devoted to the important topic of dissipative processes and to the effects that these have on quantum optical systems. The final chapter discusses dressed states, that is, the eigenstates of interacting…