Quantum dynamics of a laser-cooled ideal gas

Abstract

We study a system of bosonic or fermionic atoms in a microscopic trap undergoing laser cooling. We derive a master equation governing the evolution of such a system, and show that the stationary state can be described by Bose-Einstein or Fermi-Dirac distributions. The quantum-statistical character of the atoms exhibits itself in the dynamical behavior of the system and in the statistical properties of fluorescence photons emitted in the stationary state.