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# New Consequences of Induced Transparency in a Double-Λ scheme: Destructive Interference In Four-wave Mixing

## I Introduction

Efficient four-wave mixing (FWM) processes in the context of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT)  involving a double-$`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ scheme have been the subject of several recent studies \[2-4\]. In almost all of these studies, a large atomic coherence has been considered to be a key player in yielding a high conversion efficiency. Therefore, maximum atomic coherence was assumed. Furthermore, all studies available so far are based on either a steady-state approximation\[2-4\] or a full-numerical calculation to obtain predictions on the system. A numerical calculation usually fails to yield as much insight into a problem as would be obtained from an analytical solution. The steady-state treatment is analytical, but it oversimplifies the problem and, in some cases, it leads to incorrect conclusions. In particular, it is known that a steady-state treatment of a four-level double-$`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ scheme can lead to an inconsistent solution in predicting quantum destructive interference effects that have profound relations to the wave mixing process. In this study, we describe an approximate analytical solution to a four-state double-$`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ scheme that is different from those studied previously \[2-4\]. Three features distinguish the present study from previous works: (1). A self-consistent fully time-dependent treatment leads to a three-photon destructive interference that extinguishes the laser excitation to the terminal state of a three-photon resonance, yet still provides nearly 25% frequency conversion efficiency. Such a three-photon destructive interference together with a high conversion efficiency from a quenched FWM state have not previously been reported in any double-$`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ scheme in the context of EIT, and cannot be obtained from a simple steady-state treatment. (2). We show that resonance excitation (which leads to perfect one-photon EIT) is not the desired condition for optimum production of the mixing wave. We point out that sizable detunings from these resonances are required in order to avoid the three-photon destructive interference that limits the conversion efficiency, and (3) We show that, contrary to common beliefs, high conversion efficiency is not determined by having the maximum atomic coherence between the states $`|0>`$ and $`|1>`$. Indeed, in this four-wave mixing scheme very little depletion of the ground state occurs and $`\rho _{01}`$ remains very small throughout the probe pulse. The correct criteria for achieving high conversion efficiency is a combination of the conventional phase-matching condition and a condition that ensures the constructive interference between two terms in the expression for the FWM field. In order to make both of the two terms of comparable size, a relatively large detuning is required to reduce near resonance absorption of one part of the four-wave mixing field.

## II Theoretical Model

Consider a four-level system that interacts with two transform-limited lasers ($`E_{L1}(\omega _{L1})`$ and $`E_{L2}(\omega _{L2})`$, pulse length $`\tau _0`$, Fig.1). A short pulse probe laser (pulse length $`\tau <<\tau _0`$) is tuned near the $`|0>|2>`$ resonance and fired at a predetermined delay time. We assume that during the pulse length of the probe laser the two long pulsed lasers at $`\omega _{L1}`$ and $`\omega _{L2}`$ are sufficiently powerful to strongly saturate $`|2>|1>`$ and $`|1>|3>`$ transitions, therefore, $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}\tau |>>1`$ and $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}\tau |>>1`$. As usual, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{ij}=D_{ij}E_L/(2\mathrm{})`$ and $`E_L`$ are the one half Rabi frequency and the amplitude of the field for the respective transitions. Our objective is to seek a perturbative treatment for the response of the system to the short pulsed laser and to investigate the dynamics of the generated wave. We start with three equations of motion for the amplitudes of atomic wave function in the non-depleted ground state approximation. We thus require that $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{02}|<<|\mathrm{\Omega }_{21}|`$, so that most of the population remains in state $`|0>`$. Taking $`A_01`$, we have

$`{\displaystyle \frac{A_1}{t}}`$ $`=`$ $`i\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}A_2+i\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}A_3+i(\delta _1+i{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma _1}{2}})A_1,`$ (1a)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{A_2}{t}}`$ $`=`$ $`i(\delta _2+i\gamma _2/2)A_2+i\mathrm{\Omega }_{20}+i\mathrm{\Omega }_{21}A_1,`$ (1b)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{A_3}{t}}`$ $`=`$ $`i(\delta _3+i\gamma _3/2)A_3+i\mathrm{\Omega }_{31}A_1+i\mathrm{\Omega }_{30}.`$ (1c)
In Eqs.(1), $`\delta _1`$ is the detuning from the two-photon resonance between $`|0>`$ and $`|1>`$, $`\delta _2`$ is the detuning of the short pulse probe laser from the $`|0>|2>`$ resonance, $`\delta _3`$ is the detuning from the three-photon resonance involving the transition $`|0>|3>`$. We will eventually assume that the lasers are tuned to the two-photon resonance $`|0>|1>`$ and that the lifetime of this state is very long. Bear in mind that the generation of the four-wave mixing field will be shown to be very efficient, therefore, we must solve the above three equations of motion simultaneously with Maxwell’s equations for both the probe and the generated fields. Taking unfocused beams and introducing $`\kappa _{ij}=2\pi \omega _{ji}N|D_{ij}|^2/(\mathrm{}c)`$ where $`N`$ is the concentration in cm<sup>-3</sup>, Maxwell’s equations for these fields in slowly varying amplitude and phase approximation can be expressed as

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_{20}}{z}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{c}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_{20}}{t}}`$ $`=`$ $`i\kappa _{02}A_2,`$ (2a)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_{30}}{z}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{c}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_{30}}{t}}`$ $`=`$ $`i\kappa _{03}A_3.`$ (2b)
Notice that in the present model, there exist two very different time scales, i.e. $`\tau <<\tau _0`$, therefore, if the probe pulse occurs at the peak of the long pulse lasers, the amplitudes of the latter will remain nearly constant through the entire probe pulse. We therefore will be seeking a fully time dependent response of the system during the period when the probe pulse is present while treating both long pulse laser fields as time independent quantities. With this method in mind, Eqs.(1) and (2) can be solved analytically. Taking Fourier transform on the both sides of Eqs.(1) and (2), we obtain

$`\mathrm{\Omega }_{21}\alpha _1+(\delta _2+\omega +i\gamma _2/2)\alpha _2`$ $`=`$ $`W_{20},`$ (3a)
$`(\delta _1+\omega +i\gamma _1/2)\alpha _1+\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}\alpha _2+\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}\alpha _3`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (3b)
$`\mathrm{\Omega }_{31}\alpha _1+(\delta _3+\omega +i\gamma _3/2)\alpha _3`$ $`=`$ $`W_{30},`$ (3c)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{W_{20}}{z}}i{\displaystyle \frac{\omega }{c}}W_{20}`$ $`=`$ $`i\kappa _{02}\alpha _2,`$ (3d)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{W_{30}}{z}}i{\displaystyle \frac{\omega }{c}}W_{30}`$ $`=`$ $`i\kappa _{03}\alpha _3.`$ (3e)
where $`\alpha _1`$, $`\alpha _2`$, $`\alpha _3`$, $`W_{20}`$ and $`W_{30}`$ are the Fourier transforms of $`A_1`$, $`A_2`$, $`A_3`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{20}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{30}`$, respectively. Eqs. (3a-3c) can be solved in terms of $`W_{20}`$ and $`W_{30}`$ with the result

$`\alpha _1`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{D_3\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}W_{20}{\displaystyle \frac{D_2\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}W_{30},`$ (4a)
$`\alpha _2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_{21}\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}W_{30}+{\displaystyle \frac{|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|^2D_1D_3}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}W_{20},`$ (4b)
$`\alpha _3`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_{31}\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}W_{20}+{\displaystyle \frac{|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2D_1D_2}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}W_{30},`$ (4c)
where,

$`D_1`$ $`=`$ $`\delta _1+\omega +i\gamma _1/2,`$
$`D_2`$ $`=`$ $`\delta _2+\omega +i\gamma _2/2,`$
$`D_3`$ $`=`$ $`\delta _3+\omega +i\gamma _3/2,`$
$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ $`=`$ $`D_1D_2D_3D_3|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2D_2|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|^2.`$
When these equations are used in Eqs (3d-3e), we obtain

$`{\displaystyle \frac{W_{20}}{z}}i{\displaystyle \frac{\omega }{c}}W_{20}`$ $`=`$ $`i\kappa _{02}{\displaystyle \frac{(|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|^2D_1D_3)}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}W_{20}i\kappa _{02}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_{21}\mathrm{\Omega }_{31}}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}W_{30},`$ (5a)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{W_{30}}{z}}i{\displaystyle \frac{\omega }{c}}W_{30}`$ $`=`$ $`i\kappa _{03}{\displaystyle \frac{(|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2D_1D_2)}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}W_{30}i\kappa _{03}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_{31}\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}W_{20}.`$ (5b)
For given $`W_{20}(0,\omega )`$ and with $`W_{30}(0,\omega )=0`$, Eqs (5) can be solved analytically, yielding

$`W_{30}(z,\omega )`$ $`=`$ $`i{\displaystyle \frac{W_{20}(0,\omega )S_3}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}}e^{iDz}\mathrm{sin}(\mathrm{\Lambda }z),`$ (6a)
$`W_{20}(z,\omega )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{W_{20}(0,\omega )}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}}e^{iDz}\left(i{\displaystyle \frac{K_2K_3}{2}}\mathrm{sin}(\mathrm{\Lambda }z)+\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{cos}(\mathrm{\Lambda }z)\right),`$ (6b)
where we have defined the new parameters

$`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{\left({\displaystyle \frac{K_2K_3}{2}}\right)^2+S_2S_3},`$ (7a)
$`D`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{K_2+K_3}{2}},`$ (7b)
$`K_2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\omega }{c}}+\kappa _{02}{\displaystyle \frac{|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|^2D_1D_3}{\mathrm{\Delta }}},K_3={\displaystyle \frac{\omega }{c}}+\kappa _{03}{\displaystyle \frac{|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2D_1D_2}{\mathrm{\Delta }}},`$ (7c)
$`S_2`$ $`=`$ $`\kappa _{02}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_{21}\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}}{\mathrm{\Delta }}},S_3=\kappa _{03}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_{31}\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}.`$ (7d)
If we use, for the probe laser at the entrance to the medium,

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_{02}(0,t)=\mathrm{\Omega }_{02}(0,0)e^{(t/\tau )^2},$$

we find

$$W_{02}(0,\eta )/\mathrm{\Omega }_{02}(0,0)=\frac{\tau }{\sqrt{2}}e^{\eta ^2/4},$$

where we have introduced the dimensionless variable $`\eta =\omega \tau `$. We then get

$`\mathrm{\Omega }_{30}(z,{\displaystyle \frac{t}{\tau }})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{i\mathrm{\Omega }_{20}(0,0)}{\sqrt{4\pi }}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑\eta e^{\frac{\eta ^2}{4}}e^{iD(\eta )z}e^{i\eta \frac{t}{\tau }}S_3(\eta ){\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{sin}(\mathrm{\Lambda }z)}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}},`$ (8a)
$`\mathrm{\Omega }_{20}(z,{\displaystyle \frac{t}{\tau }})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_{20}(0,0)}{\sqrt{4\pi }}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑\eta e^{\frac{\eta ^2}{4}}e^{iD(\eta )z}e^{i\eta \frac{t}{\tau }}\left[i{\displaystyle \frac{K_2K_3}{2\mathrm{\Lambda }}}\mathrm{sin}(\mathrm{\Lambda }z)+\mathrm{cos}(\mathrm{\Lambda }z)\right].`$ (8b)
In the following section, we will discuss the physical implications of Eq.(8) by examining some limiting cases where Eq.(8) can be evaluated analytically. In Section IV, we will evaluates Eqs. (8) numerically and compare the results with the analytical approximations.

III. Discussions

In this section we focus on the physical interpretation of Eqs.(8). We will consider some limiting cases where the inverse transform of the generated field can be carried out analytically. These limiting cases provide a great deal of insight into the wave propagation effects. Consider the limiting case where $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|,|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|>>|\delta _1|,|\delta _2|,|\delta _3|,\gamma _1,\gamma _2,\gamma _3`$. In fact, in what follows we shall always use $`\delta _1=0`$ and assume that state $`|1>`$ is a second hyperfine level of the ground state, so that in an ultra-cold vapor $`\gamma _1\tau <<1`$. In this case the width of state $`|1>`$ is determined by the very slow rate of collisions between the atoms of cold low density vapor. Under these conditions, an accurate approximation to the parameters in Eqs. (7) can be obtained by assuming $`|\mathrm{\Delta }_1|<<|\mathrm{\Delta }_2|,|\mathrm{\Delta }_3|`$, and $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|,|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|>>|\mathrm{\Delta }_2|,|\mathrm{\Delta }_3|`$. Within this limit we can expand $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ by making use of the assumption that either $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|^2`$, or $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2`$ is much larger than either $`|D_1D_2|`$ or $`|D_1D_3|`$, therefore,

$$\frac{K_2+K_3}{2}\sqrt{\left(\frac{K_2K_3}{2}\right)^2+S_2S_3}D_1\frac{\kappa _{12}\kappa _{32}}{\kappa _{12}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|^2+\kappa _{32}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2}.$$
(9)
If we replace $`sine`$ and $`cosine`$ in the inverse transform by complex exponentials, this approximation allows us to evaluate part of the integrals analytically for arbitrary pulse shape. When the detunings $`\delta _2`$ and $`\delta _3`$ are very small compared with the half-Rabi frequencies, the other integrals are damped out in a small distance due to absorption. We first analyze the case where $`\delta _1=\delta _2=\delta _3=0`$, i.e. all lasers are tuned exactly on the unperturbed resonances. This is the limit where one-photon EIT is achieved. In this limit we find that after a large propagation distance, and at a point where the FWM has built up sufficiently

$`\mathrm{\Omega }_{30}(z,t)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\kappa _{03}\mathrm{\Omega }_{31}\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}}{\kappa _{02}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|^2+\kappa _{03}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2}}\mathrm{\Omega }_{20}(0,t{\displaystyle \frac{z}{V_{g1}}}),`$ (10a)
$`\mathrm{\Omega }_{20}(z,t)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\kappa _{03}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2}{\kappa _{02}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|^2+\kappa _{03}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2}}\mathrm{\Omega }_{20}(0,t{\displaystyle \frac{z}{V_{g1}}}),`$ (10b)
where

$$\frac{1}{V_{g1}}=\frac{1}{c}+\frac{\kappa _{12}\kappa _{32}}{\kappa _{12}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|^2+\kappa _{32}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2}.$$

This result indicates that in this limit $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{20}(z,t)=(\mathrm{\Omega }_{21}/\mathrm{\Omega }_{31})\mathrm{\Omega }_{30}(z,t)`$. Indeed, Eq. (4c) shows that in this limit $`\alpha _30`$ for all $`\omega `$, providing $`z`$ is large enough to make $`|\mathrm{exp}(i[\kappa _{02}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|^2+\kappa _{03}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2]/\mathrm{\Delta }])|<<1`$. It is required that $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2>>|D_1D_2|`$ in order for $`W_{02}/W_{03}=\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}/\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}`$ to imply that $`\alpha _3=0`$. In other words, $`a`$ $`destructive`$ $`interference`$ $`has`$ $`occured`$ $`between`$ $`the`$ $`excitation`$ $`pathways`$ $`for`$ $`the`$ $`state`$.  We emphasize that this suppression of the excitation of the state $`|3>`$ cannot be obtained from the usual steady-state treatment of the atomic equations of motion. Indeed, the condition derived in the steady-state frame work for a three-photon destructive interference leads to an inconsistent prediction of the effect. We have evaluated the special case where $`\kappa _{12}\tau =\kappa _{23}\tau =200cm^1`$, $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}\tau |=5`$, $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}\tau |=20`$,$`\gamma _1\tau =0.02`$, $`\gamma _2\tau =\gamma _3\tau =2`$ using both Eq.(10) and numerical integration of Eq.(8). As will be seen later the approximate analytical solution is in excellent agreement with the numerical evaluation and the ratio of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{20}(z,t)/\mathrm{\Omega }_{30}(z,t)`$ at $`z=10`$ cm is equal to a constant (at all t where the two quantities are greater than $`10^4`$ of their peak values) to an accuracy of seven significant figures. To this accuracy, the constant ratio is equal to $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}/\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}`$. Also, the peak in the two half-Rabi frequencies occurs at the point predicted by the group velocity $`V_{g1}`$. Note that if one allows $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|=0`$ then $`V_{g1}`$ reduces to the expression appropriate to the extremely slow wave propagation experiment , as should be the case.

It should be pointed out that the destructive interference predicted above is equivalent to EIT for both the four-wave mixing photons and the probe laser photons. To see this clearly, consider the condition for Eq. (1b) to predict $`A_2=0`$ at a point in space. This would be the case if $`A_1=\mathrm{\Omega }_{20}/\mathrm{\Omega }_{21}`$ at all times. With this amplitude for $`A_1`$ the coupling terms destructively interfere. This is what happens when EIT occurs for the probe laser, for in this case there is no polarization to lowest order at $`\omega _p`$. Correspondingly, in order to have EIT at the four-wave mixing frequency we must have $`A_3=0`$. Looking at Eq. (1c), we see that this requires $`A_1=\mathrm{\Omega }_{30}/\mathrm{\Omega }_{31}`$. In order for EIT to occur at both frequencies, the two values of $`A_1`$ must be the same. This yields $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{20}/\mathrm{\Omega }_{21}=\mathrm{\Omega }_{30}/\mathrm{\Omega }_{31}`$. The same relation holds in Eqs. (10).

We now consider the situation where $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|\tau =|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|\tau >100`$, $`|\delta _1|=0`$ and $`\gamma _1\tau <<1`$. We also assume that $`|\delta _3|\tau >>1`$, but $`|\delta _2/\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2,|\delta _3/\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2,|\delta _2/\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|^2,|\delta _3/\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|^21`$. These conditions indicate that both the Autler-Townes splittings and the detunings are large enough so that very little absorption occurs. In this limit three-photon destructive interference no longer occurs, and we find

$`\mathrm{\Omega }_{30}(z,t)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\kappa _{03}\mathrm{\Omega }_{31}\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}}{\kappa _{02}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|^2+\kappa _{03}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2}}\left(\mathrm{\Omega }_{20}(0,t{\displaystyle \frac{z}{V_{g1}}})\mathrm{\Omega }_{20}(0,t{\displaystyle \frac{z}{V_g}})e^{iPz}\right),`$ (11a)
$`\mathrm{\Omega }_{20}(z,t)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\kappa _{03}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2}{\kappa _{02}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|^2+\kappa _{03}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2}}`$
$`\times \left(\mathrm{\Omega }_{20}(0,t{\displaystyle \frac{z}{V_{g1}}})+{\displaystyle \frac{\kappa _{02}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|^2}{\kappa _{03}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2}}\mathrm{\Omega }_{20}(0,t{\displaystyle \frac{z}{V_g}})e^{iPz}\right),`$
where we have introduced notations

$`P`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\kappa _{02}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|^2+\kappa _{03}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2}{|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2\delta _3+|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|^2\delta _2}},`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{V_g}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{c}}+{\displaystyle \frac{(1+|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}/\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2)(\kappa _{02}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}/\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2+\kappa _{03})}{\left(\delta _3+|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}/\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2\delta _2\right)^2}}.`$
In the expression of $`V_g`$ we have neglected a term that is of the same order of magnitude as $`1/V_{g1}1/c`$, since such a term is much smaller than $`1/V_g1/c`$ in the above equation when the half-Rabi frequencies are much larger than the detunings. Eq.(11) indicates that there are two contributions to the growth of the FWM field $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{30}`$. The first contribution is due to the probe field that travels at the group velocity $`V_{g1}`$, whereas the second term consists of a probe field that travels at a second group velocity, $`V_g`$. If these two parts do not separate appreciably before a distance $`z`$ such that $`|Pz|=\pi `$ is reached, the two parts will interfere constructively. In the case where $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}/\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|1`$, this requires that $`c(\kappa _{02}+\kappa _{03})<<(\delta _2+\delta _3)^2`$ and $`c/V_{g1}1`$. The latter condition puts restrictions on $`ka_{12}c\tau ^2`$ and $`\kappa _{32}c\tau ^2`$, as compared with $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}\tau |`$ and $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|\tau `$. The photon flux conversion efficiency under this condition can be found as

$$\frac{F_m}{F_p}=\frac{\kappa _{03}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2\kappa _{02}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|^2}{(\kappa _{03}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2+\kappa _{02}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|^2)^2}\left|e^{(tz/c)^2/\tau ^2}e^{iPzQz(tz/V_g)^2/\tau ^2}\right|^2,$$
(12)
where

$$Q=P\frac{|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2\gamma _3/2+|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|^2\gamma _2/2}{|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2\delta _3+|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|^2\delta _2}.$$

In Eq.(12), $`F_m`$ and $`F_p`$ are the photon fluxes for the FWM and probe fields, respectively, and in deriving this expression we have, for the mathematical simplicity, assumed a Gaussian pulse shape for the probe field so that $`W_{20}(0,\omega )=\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_{20}(0,0)\tau }{\sqrt{2}}e^{\omega ^2\tau ^2}`$. ¿From Eq.(12), we notice that if we choose $`|Pz|=\pi `$ and $`\kappa _{02}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|^2=\kappa _{03}|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2`$, then we obtain $`F_mF_p`$. This implies that the conversion efficiency is close to 100% whenever the difference between $`V_{g1}`$ and $`V_g`$ is small and the absorbtion factor $`|Qz|<<1`$. Extensive numerical calculations have verified that conversion efficiencies of nearly 100% are indeed produced when the conditions stated before are well satisfied.

In the case where the three-photon destructive interference does occur, i.e. in the case when perfect one-photon EIT is established with $`\delta _1\tau =\delta _2\tau =\delta _3\tau =0`$, the second term in Eq.(12) disappears and the integral can be evaluated analytically. The result is a nearly 25% conversion efficiency in spite of the fact that the FWM field is strongly suppressed and there will be no further production of the field in the rest of medium. This indicates that for the scheme studied here, achieving one-photon EIT is detrimental to the high flux conversion efficiency. Therefore, one prefers to detune the two long pulsed lasers from the perspective resonances in order to avoid the destructive interference. Another important conclusion that can be immediately deduced from Eq.(9) is that it shows that maximum atomic coherence is not the optimum choice for maximum conversion efficiency as previously suggested . Indeed, there are two conditions that must be met in order to achieve maximum conversion efficiency. The first one is the combination of $`\kappa _{02}`$, $`\kappa _{03}`$, $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|`$, and $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|`$ that maximize the amplitude of the expression in Eqs.(10-12). It has been shown  that this is precisely the conventional phase-matching condition for efficient wave mixing process. The second condition that must be met is that the propagation distance must be chosen properly in order to make the two terms in Eq.(12) interfere constructively. It is the combination of these two conditions that enables a highly efficient wave mixing and flux conversion process.

## III Numerical simulations

In this section, we investigate the model system numerically. Our main focus is to study the validity of Eq.(12) under specified conditions. This expression gives a complete description, under the conditions prescribed, on the flux conversion efficient with the field propagation effect included. It contains all the functional dependence of the FWM field on time, propagation distance, Rabi frequencies and detunings. We will first compare Eq.(12) with direct numerical evaluation of the inverse transform in order to show the validity of our approximation that leads to analytical results. After having established the validity of the analytical result, we then investigate the functional dependence of the conversion efficiency on parameters such as detunings and pumping Rabi frequencies, which may be useful in experimental verification of the theory. As mentioned before, the probe field propagation, generation of the FWM field, and the high-efficiency photon flux conversion described in the previous sections have all been verified through extensive numerical calculations. In Figure 2a, we first show, for a typical set of parameters, the conversion efficiency predicted by the approximation (Eq.(12)) and by direct numerical integration of the inverse transform as a function of $`(tz/c)/\tau `$. The parameters are so chosen that the three-photon destructive interference is defeated, therefore, both terms in Eq.(12) contribute to the overall conversion efficiency. Furthermore, we have chosen the parameters that maximizes the amplitude of the expression given in Eq.(11). The graph shows an excellent agreement between the approximate solution and the numerical evaluation of the inverse transform, and both methods predict nearly 100% conversion efficiency. In Figure 2b, a different set of propagation parameters are chosen under the condition where the three-photon destructive interference is not present. Again, the plot shows an excellent agreement between the two methods. These results indicate that the analytical result Eq.(12) can, under the conditions given, correctly predict the propagation effect of the generated field. Therefore, we will use Eq.(12) to explore the functional dependence of the conversion efficient to various detunings and power densities. As has mentioned before, EIT process is established when both long pulse laser are tuned on resonance, i.e. $`\delta _2\tau =\delta _3\tau =0`$. The resulting conversion efficiency can be analytically obtained. In Figure 3a, we show the dependence of the efficiency as function of $`\delta _2\tau `$. As the detuning of the second laser from the resonance is increased, the efficiency increases, as expected. The similar effect due to the detuning $`\delta _3\tau `$ is also shown in Figure 3b. These figures indicate that for optimum operation, one should choose non-vanishing detunings which also satisfy the conditions forth set for the Rabi frequencies. Finally, we investigate the dependence of the conversion efficiency on laser powers. First, it is obvious that Eq.(9) is independent of the power of the probe laser. In Figure 4, we plot the efficiency as function of $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}/\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2`$. As expected, the maximum conversion efficiency is achieved only at $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}/\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2=0.25`$, a necessary condition, for a given $`\kappa _{02}/\kappa _{03}=4`$, in order to achieve phase matching for the generated weave.

V. Conclusion

In conclusion, we have presented an approximate analytical solution to a four-level double-$`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ scheme where laser induced transparency is expected. We predict that when the detunings from the three-photon resonance is small, and therefore the usual one-photon EIT process is established, the FWM field propagates without suffering any pulse distortion. Under these conditions, We also predict that at a sufficient propagation depth a complete three-photon destructive interference involving the FWM field and the three laser fields will reduce the polarization at the four-wave mixing frequency to zero. We have shown that even with such a robust three-photon destructive interference that strongly suppresses further generation of the FWM field beyond an onset propagation distance, the photon flux conversion efficiency can still be as high as 25%. Our result, however, indicates that one should detune both pump lasers from the perspective resonances, thereby avoid the usual one-photon EIT process. The use of a significant detuning will defeat a possible three-photon destructive interference (that limits the further production of the internally generated wave and therefore limits conversion efficiency to 25 %) therefore, allowing photon flux conversion efficiencies close to 100% with even a very weak probe field. In addition, our calculation shows that, contrary to common belief, a maximum atomic coherence between the two lower states is not the optimum condition for achieving maximum conversion efficiency. Indeed, with the current scheme $`|\rho _{01}|<<1`$. For high conversion efficiency, proper atomic parameters should be chosen according to Eqs.(11) and (12).

## List of References

* S.E. Harris, Phys. Today 50, 36 (1997).
* A.J. Merriam et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 5308 (2000), A.J. Merriam et al, IEEE J. SEL. TOP. QUANT. 5, 1512 (1999), A.J. Merriam et al, Opt.Lett 24, 625 (1999), M. Jain et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 4326 (1996).
* M.D. Lukin et al, Phys. Rev. A 60, 3225 (1999). For more works related to double-$`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ scheme, see M.D. Lukin, P.R. Hemmer, and M.O. Scully, Adv. in Atm. Mol. and Opt. Phys., Vol 42, 347 (2000) and reference therein.
* Early studies on double-$`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ system coupled with laser excitations can be found in S.J. Buckle et al., Opta. Acta 33, 1129 (1986). This study assumed that four externally generated laser fields, with their phase properties being precisely controlled, couples all four levels, therefore, no generated field is involved. It is not surprising that with precise control of the phase of all laser field, a two-photon cancellation is predicted by this study. Since this steady-treatment does not include the light propagation, therefore could not predict any propagation based interference effect as demonstrated in the present study. The same system was later re-examined by E.A. Korsunsky et al., Phys. Rev. A60, 4996 (1999) with the extension to include the steady-state Maxwell equation for laser fields. It also includes discussions on coherent population transfer and induced transparency. However, due to its CW nature, the study could not provide any dynamics of the system. In addition, the treatment is valid only when all four laser frequencies are close to each other. Both studies could not predict, due to the CW nature of the treatments, a possible three-photon destructive interference that must involve a phase matched internally generated field.
* This relation is similar to that obtained in the two references listed in Ref.. However, it is important to understand the difference between our results and that given in Ref.. For a four-level system coupled with four lasers with precise phase control, as described in Ref, one can make such destructive interference work for a wide range of detunings. In the case where an internally generated wave contribute to the interference, however, the robust cancellation effect can happen only when the phase matching condition for the efficient generation of the mixing wave is fulfilled. Further, it is fundamentally different that in the case where the generated field is excluded, as in Ref. , there is no appreciable effect due to wave propagation, therefore can only be achieved at very low concentration such as atomic beam. In the case where the mixing wave participates in the process, the destructive interference is readily observable even at elevated concentrations.
* M.G. Payne, L. Deng, and W.R. Garrett, Phys. Rev. A 58, 1361 (1998); L. Deng, M.G. Payne, and W.R. Garrett, Phys. Rev. A 52, 489 (1995); R.C. Hart et al., Phys. Rev. A 46, 4213 (1992); M.G. Payne et al., Phys. Rev. A 44, 7684 (1991); J.C. Miller et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 45, 114 (1980).
* L. Deng, M.G. Payne, and W.R. Garrett, Phys. Rev. A 63, 3811 (2001); L. Deng, M.G. Payne, and W.R. Garrett, Phys. Rev. A 64, 31802R (2001).
* L.V. Hau et al., Nature (London) 397, 594 (1999).

## Figure Captions

Figure 1: Energy level diagram showing a four-level double-$`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ scheme with relevant laser couplings. The theory and predictions presented in the text are expected to hold with minor modifications for other orderings of the energies of the excited states.

Figure 2a: A plot of conversion efficiency comparing approximate solution and direct integration of the inverse transform as a function of $`(tz/c)/\tau `$. Parameters used: $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|\tau =200`$, $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}|\tau =100`$, $`\kappa _{03}c\tau ^2=10`$, $`\kappa _{02}c\tau ^2=40`$, $`\gamma _1\tau =\gamma _2\tau =\gamma _3\tau =0.1`$, $`\delta _1\tau =0`$, $`\delta _2\tau =20`$, $`\delta _3\tau =20`$, and $`z=3.93`$ cm for constructive interference. The solid line is the approximate solution whereas the solid circles are full numerical solutions. Nearly 100% conversion efficiency is predicted by both methods.

Figure 2b: Same plot as in Figure 2a except $`\delta _1\tau =0`$, $`\delta _2\tau =10`$, $`\delta _3\tau =10`$, and $`z=1.96`$ cm for constructive interference. The solid line is the approximate solution whereas the solid circles are full numerical solutions.

Figure 3a: Flux conversion efficiency vs. a dimensionless quantity $`\eta =(tz/c)/\tau `$ for a set of different detuning $`\delta _2\tau `$. Open circle: $`\delta _2\tau =10`$, solid triangle: $`\delta _2\tau =20`$, open diamond: $`\delta _2\tau =40`$, solid circle: $`\delta _2\tau =60`$. All other parameters are the same as in Figure 2a.

Figure 3b: Flux conversion efficiency vs. a dimensionless quantity $`\eta =(tz/c)/\tau `$ for a set of different detuning $`\delta _3\tau `$. Open circle: $`\delta _3\tau =10`$, solid triangle: $`\delta _3\tau =20`$, open diamond: $`\delta _3\tau =40`$, solid circle: $`\delta _3\tau =60`$. All other parameters are the same as in Figure 2a.

Figure 4: Flux conversion efficiency vs. a dimensionless quantity $`\eta =(tz/c)/\tau `$ for a set of different ratio of Rabi frequencies $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}/\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2`$. Cross: $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}/\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2=1`$, open circle: $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}/\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2=0.5`$, solid circle: $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}/\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2=0.25`$, and open triangle: $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_{13}/\mathrm{\Omega }_{12}|^2=0.1`$. All other parameters are the same as in Figure 2a.


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# References

1. The existence of excitations owing their stability to topological reasons is a well known non-perturbative feature of quantum field theory. In a phase with spontaneously broken symmetry, field configurations may exist which interpolate at spatial infinity among different vacua of the theory and possess a topologic charge. In the quantum theory, these ‘extended’ objects (solitons, vortices,..) must be created by the action on the vacuum of operators which are non-local with respect to the order parameter. Since the operator content of the theory is expected to be the same on the two sides of the phase transition, such disorder operators can be identified also in the unbroken phase, where the topologic excitations are absent and they acquire non-zero vacuum expectation values.

In two space-time dimensions, only discrete symmetries can be broken spontaneously. Whenever this is the case, the broken phase possesses ‘kinks’ interpolating between two different vacua. As a concrete example, consider the (euclidean) action

$$𝒜=d^2x[_\mu \varphi ^{}^\mu \varphi +m^2\varphi ^{}\varphi +W(\varphi ^{},\varphi )],$$
(1)
where the potential $`W`$ is invariant under the $`Z_N`$ transformation $`\varphi e^{2i\pi /N}\varphi `$, $`\varphi ^{}e^{2i\pi /N}\varphi ^{}`$. Denote $`|0_j`$, $`j=0,1,\mathrm{},N1`$, the $`N`$ vacuua of the broken phase. Then we call $`\mu _k(x)`$, $`k=1,\mathrm{},N1`$, the disorder operators which create the excitations interpolating between the vacua $`|0_j`$ and $`|0_{j+k(modN)}`$. The operators $`\mu _k(x)`$ carry $`k`$ units of topological charge and satisfy the conjugation relation $`\mu _k^{}(x)=\mu _{Nk}(x)`$. The mutual non-locality between the order and disorder operators manifests itself in a phase factor arising when they are taken around each other in the euclidean plane ($`z=x_1+ix_2`$, $`\overline{z}=x_1ix_2`$) :

$`\varphi (ze^{2i\pi },\overline{z}e^{2i\pi })\mu _k(0,0)`$ $`=`$ $`e^{2i\pi k/N}\varphi (z,\overline{z})\mu _k(0,0),`$ (2)
$`\varphi ^{}(ze^{2i\pi },\overline{z}e^{2i\pi })\mu _k(0,0)`$ $`=`$ $`e^{2i\pi k/N}\varphi ^{}(z,\overline{z})\mu _k(0,0).`$ (3)
These analytic continuations apply inside correlation functions and imply that the latter are not single valued. They hold along any $`Z_N`$-invariant renormalisation group trajectory flowing out of the phase transition point and characterise the operators $`\mu _k(x)`$ beyond their role of kink creation operators in the broken phase.

The theory (1) with $`W=0`$ is a particularly simple example of such a trajectory. Even in this case the correlation functions of disorder operators are non-trivial due to the non-locality with respect to the boson. One can hope, however, to compute them exactly exploiting the free particle basis, in analogy with what happens for the Ising field theory without magnetic field, where the spin correlators can be computed exactly due to the underlying free fermion theory .

The correlation functions of non-local operators in two-dimensional free massive theories were extensively studied from the point of view of the deformation theory of differential equations in Ref.  and a series of related papers. Several works which include Refs. have been devoted afterwards to dealing with this problem through more direct and general methods of quantum field theory. In particular, the attention focused on the form factor approach in which the correlators are expressed as sums over multiparticle asymptotic states. While these spectral series can be written down explicitely for any integrable quantum field theory, the free case is up to now the only one in which they can be resummed. The use of this approach to express the correlators through solutions of non-linear differential equations was illustrated in  and  for the neutral and charged fermionic cases, respectively.

In this note we point out that the form factor approach allows for a simple unified treatment of the bosonic and fermionic cases showing the correspondence111For a given operator $`\mathrm{\Phi }(x)`$, the notation $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}(x)\mathrm{\Phi }(x)/\mathrm{\Phi }`$ will be used throughout this note.

$$\stackrel{~}{\mu }_j(x)\stackrel{~}{\mu }_k(0)=\frac{1}{\stackrel{~}{V}_{j/N}(x)\stackrel{~}{V}_{k/N}(0)},$$
(4)
where the correlators on the l.h.s. are computed in the theory (1) with $`W=0`$, and those on the r.h.s. refer to the operators $`V_\alpha (x)=\mathrm{exp}[i\sqrt{4\pi }\alpha \phi (x)]`$ in the sine-Gordon theory

$$𝒜_{sG}=d^2x\left[\frac{1}{2}_\nu \phi ^\nu \phi \mu \mathrm{cos}\beta \phi \right],$$
(5)
with $`\beta =\sqrt{4\pi }`$ and $`\mu `$ a suitably chosen mass scale.

We recall that the theory (5) with $`\beta =\sqrt{4\pi }`$ is in fact a free fermionic theory . For generic values of $`\beta `$ the elementary excitations are the solitons and antisolitons interpolating between adjacent vacua of the periodic potential. Their interaction is attractive as long as $`\beta <\sqrt{4\pi }`$ and they form topologically neutral bound states, the lightest one being the particle interpolated by the bosonic field in the action (5). These neutral particles are absent from the spectrum of asymptotic states in the repulsive region $`\beta >\sqrt{4\pi }`$, and at the point $`\beta =\sqrt{4\pi }`$ where the solitons behave as free Dirac fermions.

Since the solitons are non-local in terms of the field $`\phi (x)`$, the evaluation of both sides of Eq. (4) amounts to computing correlation functions of operators which are non-local with respect to non-interacting particles, bosons for the l.h.s. and fermions for the r.h.s. We will show how the different statistics produces the inversion in Eq. (4).

2. Consider a theory of free, charge conjugated particles $`A`$ and $`\overline{A}`$ with mass $`m`$, and denote by $`\mathrm{\Phi }_\alpha (x)`$ a scalar operator exhibiting (in the sense of (2), (3)) a non-locality phase $`e^{2i\pi \alpha }`$ ($`e^{2i\pi \alpha }`$) with respect to (the field which interpolates) the particle $`A`$ ($`\overline{A}`$). Acting on the vacuum state $`|0`$, such an operator produces neutral states consisting of pairs $`A(\theta )\overline{A}(\beta )`$. We use rapidity variables to parameterise the energy-momentum of a particle as $`(e,p)=(m\mathrm{cosh}\theta ,m\mathrm{sinh}\theta )`$. The equations satisfied by the form factors

$$f_n^\alpha (\theta _1,\mathrm{},\theta _n,\beta _1,\mathrm{},\beta _n)=0|\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}_\alpha (0)|A(\theta _1),\mathrm{},A(\theta _n),\overline{A}(\beta _1),\mathrm{},\overline{A}(\beta _n)$$
(6)
are a particular case of those holding for generic integrable theories (see e.g. )

$`f_n^\alpha (\theta _1,\mathrm{},\theta _i,\theta _{i+1},\mathrm{},\theta _n,\beta _1,\mathrm{},\beta _n)`$ $`=`$ $`Sf_n^\alpha (\theta _1,\mathrm{},\theta _{i+1},\theta _i,\mathrm{},\theta _n,\beta _1,\mathrm{},\beta _n),`$ (7)
$`f_n^\alpha (\theta _1+2i\pi ,\theta _2,\mathrm{},\theta _n,\beta _1,\mathrm{},\beta _n)`$ $`=`$ $`Se^{2i\pi \alpha }f_n^\alpha (\theta _1,\mathrm{},\theta _n,\beta _1,\mathrm{},\beta _n),`$ (8)
$`\text{Res}_{\theta _1\beta _1=i\pi }f_n^\alpha (\theta _1,\mathrm{},\theta _n,\beta _1,\mathrm{},\beta _n)`$ $`=`$ $`iS^{n1}(1e^{2i\pi \alpha })f_{n1}^\alpha (\theta _2,..,\theta _n,\beta _2,..,\beta _n),`$ (9)
where

$$S=\{\begin{array}{cc}1& \text{for free bosons}\hfill \\ 1& \text{for free fermions}.\hfill \end{array}$$
(10)
It is easy to check that the solution of the above system of equations is given by

$$f_n^\alpha (\theta _1,\mathrm{},\theta _n,\beta _1,\mathrm{},\beta _n)=S^{n(n+2)/2}(\mathrm{sin}\pi \alpha )^ne^{\left(\alpha \frac{1}{2}\delta _{S,1}\right)_{i=1}^n(\theta _i\beta _i)}\left|A_n\right|_{(S)},$$
(11)
where $`A_n`$ is a $`n\times n`$ matrix ($`A_01`$) with entries

$$A_{ij}=\frac{1}{\mathrm{cosh}\frac{\theta _i\beta _j}{2}},$$
(12)
and $`\left|A_n\right|_{(S)}`$ denotes the permanent222The permanent of a matrix differs from the determinant by the omission of the alternating sign factors $`(1)^{i+j}`$. of $`A_n`$ for $`S=1`$ and the determinant of $`A_n`$ for $`S=1`$. In fact, eq. (7) (and the analogous equation for the permutation of two $`\beta `$ variables) immediately follows from the property of $`\left|A\right|_{(S)}`$ under exchange of two rows or columns. Concerning eq. (8), the minus sign produced by $`\left|A\right|_{(S)}`$ when $`\theta _1\theta _1+2i\pi `$ is the one needed in the fermionic case, while it is canceled by the action of the Kroneker delta when $`S=1`$. Finally, eq. (9) follows from the fact that taking the residue at $`\theta _1\beta _1=i\pi `$ amounts to deleting the first row and the first column of $`A_n`$, which produces $`\left|A_{n1}\right|_{(S)}`$.

The two-point correlators are given by

$$G_{\alpha ,\alpha ^{}}^{(S)}(t)=\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}_\alpha (x)\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}_\alpha ^{}(0)=\underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{1}{(n!)^2(2\pi )^{2n}}𝑑\theta _1\mathrm{}𝑑\theta _n𝑑\beta _1\mathrm{}𝑑\beta _ng_n^{(\alpha ,\alpha ^{})}(t|\theta _1,\mathrm{},\beta _n),$$
(13)
where

$`g_n^{(\alpha ,\alpha ^{})}(t|\theta _1,\mathrm{},\beta _n)`$ $`=`$ $`f_n^\alpha (\theta _1,\mathrm{},\beta _n)f_n^\alpha ^{}(\beta _n,\mathrm{},\theta _1)e^{te_n}`$ (14)
$`=`$ $`(S\mathrm{sin}\pi \alpha \mathrm{sin}\pi \alpha ^{})^ne^{(\alpha \alpha ^{})_{i=1}^n(\theta _i\beta _i)}\left|A_n\right|_{(S)}^2e^{te_n},`$
$$t=m|x|,e_n=\underset{k=1}{\overset{n}{}}(\mathrm{cosh}\theta _k+\mathrm{cosh}\beta _k).$$

Analogously to the fermionic case , we define a new $`n\times n`$ matrix $`M_n`$ with entries

$$M_{ij}M(\theta _i,\beta _j)=(\mathrm{sin}\pi \alpha \mathrm{sin}\pi \alpha ^{})^{1/2}e^{\frac{t}{2}\mathrm{cosh}\theta _i}\frac{h(\theta _i)h^1(\beta _j)}{\mathrm{cosh}\frac{\theta _i\beta _j}{2}}e^{\frac{t}{2}\mathrm{cosh}\beta _j},$$
(15)
$$h(\theta )=e^{(\alpha \alpha ^{})\theta /2},$$

and rewrite eq. (14) as

$$g_n^{(\alpha ,\alpha ^{})}=S^n\left|M_n\right|_{(S)}^2=\left|\begin{array}{cc}0& M_n\\ M_n^T& 0\end{array}\right|_{(S)}.$$
(16)
Finally we symmetrise with respect to the two sets of rapidities by introducing a charge index $`\epsilon `$ which is $`1`$ for a particle $`A`$ and $`1`$ for $`\overline{A}`$, so that we express eq. (13) as

$$G_{\alpha ,\alpha ^{}}^{(S)}(t)=\underset{L=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{1}{L!(2\pi )^L}\underset{ϵ_1\mathrm{}ϵ_L}{}𝑑\theta _1\mathrm{}𝑑\theta _L\left|K_{ϵ_iϵ_j}(\theta _i,\theta _j)\right|_{(S)},$$
(17)
where we have introduced the $`L\times L`$ matrices with entries

$`K_+(\theta ,\beta )=M(\theta ,\beta ),`$
$`K_+(\theta ,\beta )=M(\beta ,\theta ),`$ (18)
$`K_{++}(\theta ,\beta )=K_{}(\theta ,\beta )=0.`$
The last equation in (18) ensures that only the terms with $`L=2n`$ occur in (17). Notice that the dependence on the statistics in (17) only reduces to taking the permanent or the determinant of the same matrix. According to the theory of Fredholm integral operators (see e.g. ) this leads to the result

$$G_{\alpha ,\alpha ^{}}^{(S)}(t)=\text{Det}(1+2\pi 𝐊)^S,$$
(19)
so that the correlators of operators having the same non-locality phase in the free fermion and free boson theories are the inverse of each other. The result (4) follows from the fact that the operators $`V_\alpha (x)`$ have a non-locality phase $`e^{2i\pi \alpha }`$ around the solitons at the sine-Gordon free fermion point (see e.g. ), so that $`\mu _j(x)`$ and $`V_{j/N}(x)`$ have the same non-locality with respect to the corresponding particles. Since $`j`$ runs between $`1`$ and $`N1`$, we are actually working with $`0<\alpha =j/N<1`$.

3. We have derived Eq. (4) by using the large distance expansion of the correlators. It is interesting to check this inversion relation between the two correlators in the short distance limit. Both in the bosonic and fermionic case the operators $`\mathrm{\Phi }_\alpha (x)`$ satisfy the operator product expansion

$$\mathrm{\Phi }_\alpha (x)\mathrm{\Phi }_\alpha ^{}(0)|x|^{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\alpha ,\alpha ^{}}^{(S)}}\mathrm{\Phi }_{\alpha +\alpha ^{}}+\mathrm{},$$
(20)
with

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\alpha ,\alpha ^{}}^{(S)}=X_\alpha ^{(S)}+X_\alpha ^{}^{(S)}X_{\alpha +\alpha ^{}}^{(S)},$$
(21)
$`X_\alpha ^{(S)}`$ being the scaling dimensions. In the bosonic case the index $`\alpha +\alpha ^{}`$ is taken modulo $`1`$. The scaling dimensions can be computed through the formula

$$X_\alpha ^{(S)}=\frac{1}{2\pi }d^2x\mathrm{\Theta }(x)\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}_\alpha (0)_{connected},$$
(22)
where $`\mathrm{\Theta }(x)`$ is the trace of the energy-momentum tensor. Since the only non-zero form factor of this operator in the free theories is

$$0|\mathrm{\Theta }(0)|A(\theta )\overline{A}(\beta )=2\pi m^2\left[i\mathrm{sinh}\frac{\theta \beta }{2}\right]^{\delta _{S,1}},$$
(23)
one easily finds

$$X_\alpha ^{(S)}=\{\begin{array}{cc}\alpha (1\alpha ),\hfill & S=1\hfill \\ \alpha ^2,\hfill & S=1\hfill \end{array}$$
(24)
in agreement with the conjugation properties $`\mu _j^{}=\mu _{Nj}`$ and $`V_\alpha ^{}=V_\alpha `$. These results coincide with those of conformal field theory with ‘twist’ fields (see ). It follows

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\alpha ,\alpha ^{}}^{()}=2\alpha \alpha ^{},$$
(25)
$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\alpha ,\alpha ^{}}^{(+)}=\{\begin{array}{cc}2\alpha \alpha ^{},\hfill & \alpha +\alpha ^{}<1\hfill \\ 2[\alpha \alpha ^{}+1(\alpha +\alpha ^{})],\hfill & \alpha +\alpha ^{}>1.\hfill \end{array}$$
(26)
The agreement for $`1<\alpha +\alpha ^{}<2`$ is obtained by observing that in this range of $`\alpha +\alpha ^{}`$, the leading short distance term in the fermionic case is not the one in (20) but the first off-critical contribution

$$\mu /2d^2yV_\alpha (x)V_\alpha (0)[V_1(y)+V_1(y)]_{\mu =0},$$
(27)
which indeed behaves as $`|x|^{2[\alpha \alpha ^{}+1(\alpha +\alpha ^{})]}`$ when $`x0`$.

In general, the two–point functions can be expressed as

$$G_{\alpha ,\alpha ^{}}^{(S)}(t)=e^{S\mathrm{{\rm Y}}_{\alpha ,\alpha ^{}}(t)}.$$
(28)
where $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}_{\alpha ,\alpha ^{}}(t)`$ is given by

$$\mathrm{{\rm Y}}_{\alpha ,\alpha ^{}}(t)=\frac{1}{2}_{t/2}^{\mathrm{}}\rho 𝑑\rho \left[(_\rho \chi )^24\mathrm{sinh}^2\chi \frac{(\alpha \alpha ^{})^2}{\rho ^2}\mathrm{tanh}\chi \right],$$
(29)
with $`\chi (\rho )`$ satisfying the differential equation

$$_\rho ^2\chi +\frac{1}{\rho }_\rho \chi =2\mathrm{sinh}2\chi +\frac{(\alpha \alpha ^{})^2}{\rho ^2}\mathrm{tanh}\chi (1\mathrm{tanh}^2\chi ).$$
(30)
The precise short distance behaviour for $`\alpha +\alpha ^{}<1`$ is

$$\underset{t0}{lim}G_{\alpha ,\alpha ^{}}^{(S)}(t)=\left(C_{\alpha ,\alpha ^{}}t^{2\alpha \alpha ^{}}\right)^S,$$
(31)
with an amplitude that can be deduced from the work of Ref.  on vacuum expectation values in the sine-Gordon model:

$$C_{\alpha ,\alpha ^{}}=2^{2\alpha \alpha ^{}}\mathrm{exp}\left\{2_0^{\mathrm{}}\frac{dt}{t}\left[\frac{\mathrm{sinh}\alpha t\mathrm{cosh}(\alpha +\alpha ^{})t\mathrm{sinh}\alpha ^{}t}{\mathrm{sinh}^2t}\alpha \alpha ^{}e^{2t}\right]\right\}.$$
(32)
4. The case of $`Z_2`$ symmetry is somehow special. Since a broken phase with two degenerate vacua can be realised in terms of a neutral boson, a disorder operator with non-locality factor $`1`$ in present also in the theory of a neutral bosonic free particle. It is easy to check that, for $`S=1`$ and $`\alpha =1/2`$, the form factors (11) imply the factorisation

$$\mu _1=\mu _{(1)}\times \mu _{(2)},N=2$$
(33)
where $`\mu _{(j)}`$ is the disorder operator with scaling dimension $`X_{1/2}^{(+)}/2=1/8`$ associated to the neutral boson $`A_j`$ entering the decomposition $`A=(A_1+iA_2)/\sqrt{2}`$, $`\overline{A}=(A_1iA_2)/\sqrt{2}`$.

The fermion-boson correspondence observed above for charged particles has an analogue in the neutral case, and the correlation function

$$G(t)=\stackrel{~}{\mu }_{(j)}(x)\stackrel{~}{\mu }_{(j)}(0)=\left[G_{1/2,1/2}^{(+)}(t)\right]^{1/2}$$
(34)
can be related to correlators computed in the theory of a free neutral fermion, i.e. in the Ising field theory without magnetic field. To see this, let us recall that the correlators of the spin and disorder operators in the unbroken phase of the scaling Ising model can be written as

$$\tau _\pm (t)\stackrel{~}{\mu }(x)\stackrel{~}{\mu }(0)\pm \sigma (x)\sigma (0)=\mathrm{exp}\left[\pm \frac{1}{2}\chi (t/2)\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{{\rm Y}}_{1/2,1/2}(t)\right],$$
(35)
where the functions $`\chi `$ and $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$ are those of Eqs. (29), (30). Hence, it follows from (28) and (34) that

$$G(t)=[\tau _+(t)\tau _{}(t)]^{1/2}.$$
(36)
Concerning the short distance behaviour of this correlator, the power law (31) acquires in this case a logarithmic correction due to the ‘resonance’ with the leading off-critical contribution (27). Such a contribution to the correlator $`\stackrel{~}{V}_\alpha (x)\stackrel{~}{V}_\alpha (0)`$ behaves as $`C_{\alpha ,\alpha }t^{1/2}[1+(24\alpha )\mathrm{ln}t]`$ in the limit $`\alpha 1/2`$, so that

$$\underset{t0}{lim}G_{1/2,1/2}^{()}(t)=\underset{t0}{lim}G^2(t)=t^{1/2}\mathrm{ln}(1/t),$$
(37)
with

$$=4\text{Res}_{\alpha =1/2}C_{\alpha ,\alpha }=0.588353...$$
(38)
We checked that this amplitude coincides with that of the product $`\tau _+(t)\tau _{}(t)`$ in the Ising model.

5. The free bosonic and fermionic theories discussed above can also be regarded as describing phases of spontaneously broken $`Z_N`$ symmetry. In this dual vision, the excitations are free kinks $`|K_{j,j\pm 1}(\theta )`$ interpolating between two adjacent vacua $`|0_j`$ and $`|0_{j\pm 1}`$ (the indices are taken modulo $`N`$). We still denote by $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{k/N}`$, $`k=0,1,\mathrm{},N1`$, the operators we are interested in. They correspond to the exponential operators $`V_{k/N}`$ in the fermionic case333In this case the N degenerate vacua can be identified with those of the periodic potential in (5) identified modulo N., and to the operators $`\sigma _k`$, dual to the disorder operators $`\mu _k`$, in the bosonic case. These operators create multikink excitations with zero topologic charge, i.e. starting and ending in the same vacuum state. Form factors on kink states were discussed in . Consider for the sake of simplicity the two-kink matrix elements

$$F_{j,k}^\pm (\theta _1\theta _2)0_j|\mathrm{\Phi }_{k/N}(0)|K_{j,j\pm 1}(\theta _1)K_{j\pm 1,j}(\theta _2),$$
(39)
satisfying the equations

$`F_{j,k}^\pm (\theta )`$ $`=`$ $`SF_{j,k}^{}(\theta ),`$
$`F_{j,k}^\pm (\theta +2i\pi )`$ $`=`$ $`F_{j\pm 1,k}^{}(\theta ),`$ (40)
$`\text{Res}_{\theta =i\pi }F_{j,k}^\pm (\theta )`$ $`=`$ $`i\left[0_j|\mathrm{\Phi }_{k/N}|0_j0_{j\pm 1}|\mathrm{\Phi }_{k/N}|0_{j\pm 1}\right].`$
Since the generator $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ of $`Z_N`$ transformations ($`\mathrm{\Omega }^N=1`$) acts on states and operators as ($`\omega e^{2i\pi /N}`$)

$`\mathrm{\Omega }|K_{j,j+1}(\theta _1)K_{j+1,j+2}(\theta _2)\mathrm{}`$ $`=`$ $`|K_{j+1,j+2}(\theta _1)K_{j+2,j+3}(\theta _2)\mathrm{},`$
$`\mathrm{\Omega }^1\mathrm{\Phi }_{k/N}(x)\mathrm{\Omega }`$ $`=`$ $`\omega ^k\mathrm{\Phi }_{k/N}(x),`$
the above form factor equations can be rewritten as

$`F_{j,k}^\pm (\theta +2i\pi )`$ $`=`$ $`S\omega ^{\pm k}F_{j,k}^\pm (\theta ),`$ (41)
$`\text{Res}_{\theta =i\pi }F_{j,k}^\pm (\theta )`$ $`=`$ $`i(1\omega ^{\pm k})0_j|\mathrm{\Phi }_{k/N}|0_j.`$ (42)
Once the identifications $`AK_{i,i+1}`$, $`\overline{A}K_{i,i1}`$ are made, these relations are equivalent to eqs. (8), (9) with $`n=1`$. The correspondence is easily extended to all values of $`n`$ and leads to the same form factors and correlation functions discussed for the unbroken phase.

The introduction of a ‘magnetic field’ pointing in the $`k`$ direction and breaking explicitely the $`Z_N`$ symmetry corresponds to adding to the free action a term

$$hd^2x\mathrm{\Psi }_k(x),$$
(43)
where

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_k(x)=\frac{1}{N}\underset{l=0}{\overset{N1}{}}\omega ^{kl}\mathrm{\Phi }_{l/N}(x).$$
(44)
The first order corrections to the energy density $`\epsilon _j`$ of the vacuum state $`|0_j`$ and to the mass $`m_{j,j\pm 1}`$ of the kink $`K_{j,j\pm 1}`$ are

$`\delta \epsilon _jh0_j|\mathrm{\Psi }_k|0_j=hv\delta _{j,k},`$ (45)
$`\delta m_{j,j\pm 1}^2h0_j|\mathrm{\Psi }_k(0)|K_{j,j\pm 1}(i\pi )K_{j\pm 1,j}(0).`$ (46)
It follows from eq. (42) that

$$\text{Res}_{\theta =i\pi }0_j|\mathrm{\Psi }_k(0)|K_{j,j\pm 1}(\theta )K_{j\pm 1,j}(0)=\frac{iv}{N}\left(\delta _{j,k}\delta _{j,k1}\right),$$
(47)
implying that the correction to the mass of the kinks interpolating between the vacua $`|0_k`$ and $`|0_{k\pm 1}`$ is infinite. This divergence simply reflects the fact that these kinks become unstable because the magnetic field removes the degeneracy of the vacuum $`|0_k`$ with the two adjacent vacua. These kinks are then confined in pairs $`K_{k,k\pm 1}K_{k\pm 1,k}`$ and the confinement gives rise to a string of bound states with zero topologic charge, as discussed in .