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Gauge non-invariance due to material truncation in ultrastrong-coupling quantum electrodynamics

Nature Physics volume 20, pages 376–378 (2024)Cite this article

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Matters Arising to this article was published on 22 December 2023

The Original Article was published on 03 June 2019

arising from O. Di Stefano et al. Nature Physics https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-019-0534-4 (2019)

The quantum theory of an infinite-dimensional material dipole coupled to an electromagnetic mode satisfies gauge invariance, which has been shown to break down after truncation to only a finite number of material energy levels1,2. In their article, Di Stefano et al.3 claim to provide a gauge-invariant truncated theory. We show that this claim is not valid.

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Fig. 1: Transition spectra as a function of coupling strength.

References

  1. De Bernardis, D., Pilar, P., Jaako, T., De Liberato, S. & Rabl, P. Breakdown of gauge invariance in ultrastrong-coupling cavity QED. Phys. Rev. A 98, 053819 (2018).

  2. Stokes, A. & Nazir, A. Gauge ambiguities imply Jaynes-Cummings physics remains valid in ultrastrong coupling QED. Nat. Commun. 10, 499 (2019).

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  3. Di Stefano, O. et al. Resolution of gauge ambiguities in ultrastrong-coupling cavity quantum electrodynamics. Nat. Phys. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-019-0534-4 (2019).

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, grant no. EP/N008154/1.

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  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Adam Stokes & Ahsan Nazir

  2. Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

    Adam Stokes

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  1. Adam Stokes
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  2. Ahsan Nazir
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All authors contributed equally to this work.

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Correspondence to Adam Stokes or Ahsan Nazir.

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Stokes, A., Nazir, A. Gauge non-invariance due to material truncation in ultrastrong-coupling quantum electrodynamics. Nat. Phys. 20, 376–378 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-023-02155-8

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