"Photon localization and Dicke superradiance : a crossover to small world
networks"

Professor Eric Akkermans

Technion, Haifa, Israel and
Physics and Applied Physics,
Yale University


We study photon localization in a gas of cold atoms, using a Dicke
Hamiltonian that accounts for photon mediated atomic dipolar interactions.
The photon escape rates are obtained from a new class of random matrices. A
scaling behavior is observed for photons escape rates as a function of
disorder and system size. Photon localization is described using statistical
properties of random networks which display a "small world" cross-over.
Those results  are compared to the Anderson photon localization transition.