Dynamics of a periodic XY chain coupled to a photon mode

We study the real-time dynamics of a periodic XY system exposed to a composite field comprised of a constant homogeneous magnetic and a quantized circularly polarized electromagnetic fields. The interaction between the quantized mode and spin-magnetic moments is modeled by the Dicke Hamiltonian. The rotating wave approximation is applied and the conditions for its validity are discussed. It is shown that if initially all of the excitations are contained in the field, then in the regime of large detuning, the main evolutionary effect involves oscillations of the excitations between the zero-momentum modes of the chain and the field. Accordingly, the reduced photon number and magnetization per site reveal a sort of oscillatory behavior. Effective Hamiltonians describing the short-time dynamics of the present model for small number of excitations and large detuning are introduced. The resonance case is considered in the context of photon emission from the chain initially prepared in the (partially) excited state. In particular, it is demonstrated, in the framework of a specific example, that the superradiant behavior shows up at the beginning of the emission, when we have an initial state with a maximally excited XY chain. Possible applications of the model to problems such as spin chain and J-aggregate in a single-mode cavity are discussed. Graphical abstract