title: Field inside a random distribution of parallel dipoles.
abstract: We determine the probability distribution for the field inside a random distribution of electric or magnetic dipoles. Although the average contribution from any spherical shell around the probe position vanishes, at the center of a spherical distribution of parallel dipoles, the Levy stable distribution of the field is symmetric around a nonvanishing field amplitude. Omission of contributions from a small volume around the probe leads to a field distribution with a vanishing mean, which, in the limit of vanishing excluded volume, converges to the shifted distribution.
authors.affiliation: QUANTOP, Danish Research Foundation Center for Quantum Optics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: Janus H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Wesenberg
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mølmer