Remarks on the hidden symmetry of the asymmetric quantum Rabi model
Cid Reyes-Bustos, Daniel Braak, Masato Wakayama
Abstract
Abstract The symmetric quantum Rabi model (QRM) is integrable due to a discrete <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="double-struck">Z</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> -symmetry of the Hamiltonian. This symmetry is generated by a known involution operator, measuring the parity of the eigenfunctions. An experimentally relevant modification of the QRM, the asymmetric (or biased) quantum Rabi model (AQRM) is no longer invariant under this operator, but shows nevertheless characteristic degeneracies of its spectrum for half-integer values of ϵ , the parameter governing the asymmetry. In an interesting recent work ( J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 54 12LT01), an operator has been identified which commutes with the Hamiltonian H ϵ of the AQRM for <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mi>ϵ</mml:mi> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mfrac> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>ℓ</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:mfrac> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>ℓ</mml:mi> <mml:mo>∈</mml:mo> <mml:mi mathvariant="double-struck">Z</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> and appears to be the analogue of the parity in the symmetric case. We prove several important properties of this operator, notably, that it is algebraically independent of the Hamiltonian H ϵ and that it essentially generates the commutant of H ϵ . Then, the expected <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="double-struck">Z</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> -symmetry manifests the fact that the commuting operator can be captured in the two-fold cover of the algebra generated by H ϵ , that is, the polynomial ring in H ϵ .