Influence of the gravitational field on the quantum-nondemolition measurement of atomic momentum in the dispersive Jaynes-Cummings model

Abstract

We present a theoretical scheme based on an su(2) dynamical algebraic structure to investigate the influence of a homogeneous gravitational field on the quantum-nondemolition measurement of atomic momentum in the dispersive Jaynes-Cummings model. In the dispersive Jaynes-Cummings model, when detuning is large and the atomic motion is in a propagating light wave, we consider a two-level atom interacting with the quantized cavity field in the presence of a homogeneous gravitational field. We derive an effective Hamiltonian describing the dispersive atom-field interaction in the presence of the gravitational field. We investigate the influence of the gravitational field on both the momentum filter and momentum distribution. Particularly, we find that the gravitational field decreases both the tooth spacing of momentum and the tooth width of momentum. © 2006 IOP Publishing Ltd.