Quantum Electrodynamical Bloch Theory with Homogeneous Magnetic Fields
Abstract
We propose a solution to the problem of Bloch electrons in a homogeneous magnetic field by including the quantum fluctuations of the photon field. A generalized quantum electrodynamical (QED) Bloch theory from first principles is presented. In the limit of vanishing quantum fluctuations we recover the standard results of solid-state physics, for instance, the fractal spectrum of the Hofstadter butterfly. As a further application we show how the well known Landau physics is modified by the photon field and that Landau polaritons emerge. This shows that our QED-Bloch theory does not only allow to capture the physics of solid-state systems in homogeneous magnetic fields, but also novel features that appear at the interface of condensed matter physics and quantum optics.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1808.02389,
title = {Quantum Electrodynamical Bloch Theory with Homogeneous Magnetic Fields},
author = {Vasil Rokaj and Markus Penz and Michael A Sentef and Michael Ruggenthaler and Angel Rubio},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1808.02389},
year = {2019}
}