We consider a two-level system such as a two-level atom, interacting with a cavity field mode in the rotating wave approximation, when the atomic transition frequency or the field mode frequency is periodically driven in time. We show that in both cases, for an appropriate choice of the modulation parameters, the state amplitudes in a generic $n$-excitation subspace obey the same equations of motion that can be obtained from a static non-Hermitian Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian with $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry, that is with an imaginary coupling constant. This gives further support to recent results showing the possible physical interest of $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetric non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. We also generalize the well-known diagonalization of the Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian to the non-Hermitian case in terms of pseudobosons and pseudofermions, and discuss relevant mathematical and physical aspects.

• Received 5 March 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.91.042134