A reexamination of the Green function treatment of the Mollow problem

The application of the Green function method to the Mollow problem is reconsidered. This problem consists of an intense monochromatic electromagnetic field in resonance with a two-level atom. We obtain a solution to the infinite hierarchy of Green function equations of motion instead of decoupling the equations of motion. This solution gives an excitation spectrum in agreement with Mollow's results. We conclude that earlier discrepancies in the excitation spectrum were artifacts of the decoupling procedure. Finally, we comment upon the physical ideas associated with the present and previous Green function treatments of the Mollow problem.