Simplified approach to double jumps for fluorescing dipole-dipole interacting atoms

A simplified scheme for the investigation of cooperative effects in the quantum jump statistics of small numbers of fluorescing atoms and ions in a trap is presented. It allows the analytic treatment of three dipole-dipole interacting four-level systems which model the relevant level scheme of Ba⁺ ions. For the latter, a huge rate of double and triple jumps was reported in a former experiment and the huge rate was attributed to the dipole-dipole interaction. Our theoretical results show that the effect of the dipole-dipole interaction on these rates is at most 5% and that for the parameter values of the experiment there is practically no effect. Consequently it seems that the dipole-dipole interaction can be ruled out as a possible explanation for the huge rates reported in the experiment.