Interference between two resonant transitions with distinct initial and final states connected by radiative decay

Abstract

The resonant line shape from driving a transition between two states, $|\mathrm{a}⟩$ and $|\mathrm{b}⟩$, can be distorted due to a quantum-mechanical interference effect involving a resonance between two different states, $|\mathrm{c}⟩$ and $|\mathrm{d}⟩$, if $|\mathrm{c}⟩$ has a decay path to $|\mathrm{a}⟩$ and $|\mathrm{d}⟩$ has a decay path to $|\mathrm{b}⟩$. This interference can cause a shift of the measured resonance, despite the fact that the two resonances do not have a common initial or final state. As an example, we demonstrate that such a shift affects measurements of the atomic hydrogen 2S${}_{1/2}$-to-2P${}_{1/2}$ Lamb-shift transition due to 3S-to-3P transitions if the 3S${}_{1/2}$ state has some initial population.

4 figures

References in corpus (1)

• The Proton Radius Puzzle