The influence of the counter-rotating terms on the single-atom spontaneous emission inside a low-Q cavity

Summary Taking into account the counter-rotating terms, an exact equation of motion for the atomic population inversion is derived in the case of the single-atom spontaneous emission inside a damped cavity, by applying a modified Robertson projection-operator method developed previously by the authors. For strongly damped (low-Q) cavities an analytic solution showing the significance of the effect of the counter-rotating terms is obtained. Experimental verification with Rydberg atoms may be feasible.