Two-photon quantum Rabi models - Spectral degeneracy and symmetries

Abstract

The quantum Rabi model occupies a distinguished role in the study of quantum light and matter, describing the most fundamental interactions. Elucidation of its spectral properties, along with those of its generalizations, is necessary for quantum optics and applications in areas such as quantum information technologies. In this paper, we explore a precise description of energy degeneracy of the two-photon asymmetric quantum Rabi model and the nature of the system's symmetries; as a result, we demonstrate that these have significant relationships with the structure of certain algebraic curves (hyperelliptic curves) and number theory. Concretely, we first prove the existence of degenerate eigenvalues using the monodromy data of the Fuchsian ODE, which draws the eigenvalue problem of the system, and the existence of associated symmetry operators, previously discovered and studied heuristically in physics. Subsequently, we give a complete characterization of spectral degeneracies and present a series of conjectures showing that the degeneracy may determine the entire energy spectral structure. More precisely, for sufficiently strong interaction, we obtain an excellent approximation of the energy curves by the zero locus of a two-variable polynomial associated to degenerate eigenstates. In addition, we postulate an explicit description of the relation between the missing symmetry at the Hamiltonian level (hidden symmetry) and the degeneracy of the two-photon quantum Rabi model.