Non-Thermal Effects in Fermionic Atoms Coupled to Open Cavities

Abstract

We study a Fermi-Hubbard model coupled to a open dissipative single cavity mode. Using Keldysh diagrammatics we derive and solve the quantum kinetic equations for the fermions, taking the bosonic cavity mode as a source of non-equilibrium noise and dissipation. In absence of Hubbard interactions we show that the fermions reach generically a non-equilibrium steady-state, characterized by a non-thermal distribution function. Quite interestingly we demonstrate that the latter exactly nullifies the heat-current between fermions and cavity mode. We discuss the regimes of parameters where a low-frequency effective temperature description emerges and how the fluctuations affect the mean-field phase diagram for the superradiance phase transition. Finally we include Hubbard interaction in the weak-coupling regime and show that it leads to a crossover towards a full equilibrium distribution.