Analytical connection between exact and approximate solutions of the periodically-driven two-level system starting from the Heun equation

We investigate and establish an analytic connection between the exact solutions describing the dynamics of a two-level system driven by periodic external fields, focusing on the cases of linear driving and the so-called rotating-wave approximation, or circular driving.

In both cases, the exact solutions can be obtained by mapping the Schrodinger equation onto Heun equations: the confluent Heun equation for linear driving and the Heun equation for the rotating-wave case.

In particular, we demonstrate a direct analytic connection between the exact solutions for linear driving and those for the rotating-wave case.

This result is obtained by analyzing local solutions expressed in terms of hypergeometric functions, which, in the case of the confluent Heun equation, can be derived by considering path-multiplicative Floquet solutions involving a bilateral series.

This series leads to two continued-fraction expansions that can be perturbatively solved by imposing a suitable consistency condition.

The connection between the linear-driving and rotating-wave solutions is established through a perturbative procedure that allows us to recover not only the rotating-wave approximation itself, but also the correct Stark and Bloch-Siegert shifts, as well as the so-called high-frequency approximation.