Cavity array metamaterials (CAMs), composed of optical microcavities in a lattice coupled via tight-binding interactions, represent a novel architecture for engineering metamaterials. Since the size of the CAMs constituent elements are commensurate w
ith the operating wavelength of the device, it cannot directly utilise classical transformation optics in the same way as traditional metamaterials. By directly transforming the internal geometry of the system, and locally tuning the permittivity between cavities, we provide an alternative framework suitable for tight-binding implementations of metamaterials. We develop a CAM-based cloak as the case study.
Quantum graphity offers the intriguing notion that space emerges in the low energy states of the spatial degrees of freedom of a dynamical lattice. Here we investigate metastable domain structures which are likely to exist in the low energy phase of
lattice evolution. Through an annealing process we explore the formation of metastable defects at domain boundaries and the effects of domain structures on the propagation of bosons. We show that these structures should have observable background independent consequences including scattering, double imaging, and gravitational lensing-like effects.
By coupling controllable quantum systems into larger structures we introduce the concept of a quantum metamaterial. Conventional meta-materials represent one of the most important frontiers in optical design, with applications in diverse fields rangi
ng from medicine to aerospace. Up until now however, metamaterials have themselves been classical structures and interact only with the classical properties of light. Here we describe a class of dynamic metamaterials, based on the quantum properties of coupled atom-cavity arrays, which are intrinsically lossless, reconfigurable, and operate fundamentally at the quantum level. We show how this new class of metamaterial could be used to create a reconfigurable quantum superlens possessing a negative index gradient for single photon imaging. With the inherent features of quantum superposition and entanglement of metamaterial properties, this new class of dynamic quantum metamaterial, opens a new vista for quantum science and technology.
The conjunction of atom-cavity physics and photonic structures (``solid light systems) offers new opportunities in terms of more device functionality and the probing of designed emulators of condensed matter systems. By analogy to the canonical one-e
lectron approximation of solid state physics, we propose a one-polariton approximation to study these systems. Using this approximation we apply Bloch states to the uniformly tuned Jaynes-Cummings-Hubbard model to analytically determine the energy band structure. By analyzing the response of the band structure to local atom-cavity control we explore its application as a quantum simulator and show phase transition features absent in mean field theory. Using this novel approach for solid light systems we extend the analysis to include detuning impurities to show the solid light analogy of the semiconductor. This investigation also shows new features with no semiconductor analog.
There has been recent debate over the use of the Boltzmann property in the kinetic equations describing dense neutrino systems such as early Universe and Supernova core. A technique developed by Bell, Rawlinson, and Sawyer utilises the flavour evolut
ion timescales of the neutrino systems to test the validity of this assumption. The Friedland-McKellar-Okuniewicz (FMO) many-body neutrino model was developed to conduct this test. It was concluded by its authors, using the Bell-Rawlinson-Sawyer timescale test, that the model lent support to the Boltzmann property assumption. We developed kinetic equations for the FMO model. By direct analysis of the kinetic equations we find, in stark contrast to Friedland et al., that in fact the Boltzmann property assumption does breakdown in the FMO model. We have shown that the Bell-Rawlinson-Sawyer timescale technique can only be used to invalidate the Boltzmann property but not validate it.
