How Many Physically Significant Solutions are There to the Self-Induced Transparency Equations?

  • R. C. Harney
Conference paper


The interaction of a coherent electromagnetic wave with a collection of two-level atoms is of major theoretical importance in the study of the interaction of light with matter, not only because analytical solutions can be obtained but also because experiments can be devised which closely approximate this ideal case. In the past there has been some controversy concerning the interpretation of the analytical solutions to this problem [1]. Although previously unpublished, the controversy is real and the problem is of sufficient fundamental importance to demand its resolution. Such is the purpose of the work described here.


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  1. 1.
    E.A. Mishkin, private communications and unpublished correspondence.Google Scholar
  2. 2.
    E.A. Mishkin, Physica, 73, 459 (1974).ADSCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. 3.
    M. Abramowitz and I.A. Stegun, Handbook of Mathematical Functions (Dover Publications, New York, 1964) chapters 16 and 17.Google Scholar
  4. 4.
    R.C. Harney, submitted to Physica.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 1978

Authors and Affiliations

  • R. C. Harney
    • 1
  1. 1.M.I.T. Lincoln LaboratoryLexingtonUSA

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