COHERENT STATES AND HOLOMORPHIC REPRESENTATIONS FOR MULTILEVEL ATOMS

The notion of atomic coherent states is extended to the multilevel case. Since the representation based on coherent states is convenient in treating collective interactions of atoms with photons, and since many optical processes involve atoms of three or more levels, it is expected that this extension will play a role in the theory of such processes as cascade superfluorescence and superradiant lasing. Like their bosonic counterparts, atomic coherent states may be used to define a holomorphic representation for atomic states and operators. We discuss this in detail and give examples to illustrate applications. © 1995 The American Physical Society.