The phase evolution of a micromaser field without the rotating-wave approximation

In a one-atom micromaser, the expression for the density matrix of the cavity field without the rotating-wave approximation (RWA) is derived using a perturbation method. The phase evolution of the cavity field is investigated without the RWA, and the results are compared with those within the RWA. It is shown that the virtual-photon processes make the symmetric phase distribution in the RWA asymmetric and cause additional quantum oscillation, which indicate the field's phase fluctuation and frequency shift. Virtual photons also cause an extra phase distribution to the field which is initially in a vacuum state. The unique characteristic of the phase properties in the course of forming a photon-number state is investigated. Other new phenomena such as the undamped oscillation of the phase variance against the injected atomic number are found.