Eigenvector expansion and Petermann factor for ohmically damped oscillators

Authors

Abstract: Correlation functions

C (t) s i m < p h i (t) p h i (0) >

in ohmically damped systems such as coupled harmonic oscillators or optical resonators can be expressed as a single sum over modes

j

(which are not power-orthogonal), with each term multiplied by the Petermann factor (PF)

C_{j}

, leading to "excess noise" when

| C_{j} | > 1

. It is shown that

| C_{j} | > 1

is common rather than exceptional, that

| C_{j} |

can be large even for weak damping, and that the PF appears in other processes as well: for example, a time-independent perturbation

s i m e p

leads to a frequency shift

s i m e p C_{j}

. The coalescence of

J

(

> 1

) eigenvectors gives rise to a critical point, which exhibits "giant excess noise" (

C_{j} o i n f t y

). At critical points, the divergent parts of

J

contributions to

C (t)

cancel, while time-independent perturbations lead to non-analytic shifts

s i m e p^{1 / J}

.

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