Dynamics of a two-level system coupled to a quantum oscillator: Transformed rotating-wave approximation

For studying the dynamics of a two-level system coupled to a quantum oscillator we have presented an analytical approach, the transformed rotating-wave approximation, which takes into account the effect of the counter-rotating terms but still keeps the simple mathematical structure of the ordinary rotating-wave approximation. We have calculated the energy levels of ground and lower-lying excited states, as well as the time-dependent quantum dynamics. It is obvious that the approach is quite simple and can be easily extended to more complicated situation. Besides, the results are compared with the numerically exact ones to show that for weak and intermediate coupling and moderate detuning our analytic calculations are quantitatively in good agreement with the exact ones.