Interference effects in a model of two-channel photon absorption by a collection of two-level atoms

Abstract

I study a model of photon absorption by a collection of two-level atoms interacting resonantly with two degenerate modes of the quantized electromagnetic field. The two fields provide two channels by which the atoms may be excited and the interference between these channels gives rise to nontrivial steady states, the trivial state just being the two-mode vacuum. The model studied is soluble.