Absence of collapse in quantum Rabi oscillations

We show analytically that the collapse and revival in the population dynamics of the atom-cavity coupled system under the rotating wave approximation (RWA), valid only at very weak coupling, is an artifact as the atom-cavity coupling is increased. Even the first-order correction to the RWA is able to bring about the absence of the collapse in the dynamics of atomic population inversion thanks to intrinsic oscillations resulting from the transitions between two levels with the same atomic quantum number. The removal of the collapse is valid for a wide range of coupling strengths which are accessible to current experimental setups. In addition, based on our analytical results that greatly improve upon the conventional RWA, even the strong-coupling power spectrum can now be explained with the help of the numerically exact energy levels.