title: Dissipative many-body quantum optics in Rydberg media.
abstract: We develop a theoretical framework for the dissipative propagation of quantized light under conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency in atomic media involving strongly interacting Rydberg states. The theory allows us to determine the peculiar spatiotemporal structure of the output of the recently demonstrated single-photon filter and the recently proposed single-photon subtractor, which, respectively, let through and absorb a single photon. In addition to being crucial for applications of these and other optical quantum devices, the theory opens the door to the study of exotic dissipative many-body dynamics of strongly interacting photons in nonlinear nonlocal media.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Quantum Information and Matter, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA and Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA.
authors.forename: Alexey V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Gorshkov
authors.affiliation: Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information and Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Rejish
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nath
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, 01187 Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pohl