Impurity-induced Dicke quantum phase transition in an impurity-doped cavity-Bose-Einstein condensate

We present a new generalized Dicke model, an impurity-doped Dicke model (IDDM), by the use of an impurity-doped cavity-Bose-Einstein condensate. It is shown that the impurity atom can induce Dicke quantum phase transition (QPT) from the normal phase to superradiant phase at a critic value of the impurity population. It is found that the IDDM exhibits continuous Dicke QPT with an infinite number of critical points, which is significantly different from that observed in the standard Dicke model with only one critical point. It is revealed that the impurity-induced Dicke QPT can happen in an arbitrary coupling regime of the cavity field and atoms while the Dicke QPT in the standard Dicke model occurs only in the strong coupling regime of the cavity field and atoms. This opens a way to observe the Dicke QPT in the intermediate and even weak coupling regime of the cavity field and atoms.