Particle production in ultrastrong-coupling waveguide QED

Journal article, 2018

Understanding large-scale interacting quantum matter requires dealing with the huge number of quanta that are produced by scattering even a few particles against a complex quantum object. Prominent examples are found from high-energy cosmic ray showers, to the optical or electrical driving of degenerate Fermi gases. We tackle this challenge in the context of many-body quantum optics, as motivated by the recent developments of circuit quantum electrodynamics at ultrastrong coupling. The issue of particle production is addressed quantitatively with a simple yet powerful concept rooted in the quantum superposition principle of multimode coherent states. This key idea is illustrated by the study of multiphoton emission from a single two-level artificial atom coupled to a high impedance waveguide, driven by a nearly monochromatic coherent tone. We find surprisingly that the off-resonant inelastic emission line shape is dominated by broadband particle production, due to the large phase space associated with contributions that do not conserve the number of excitations. Such frequency conversion processes produce striking signatures in time correlation measurements, which can be tested experimentally in quantum waveguides. These ideas open new directions for the simulation of a variety of physical systems, from polaron dynamics in solids to complex superconducting quantum architectures.