Vacuum field energy and spontaneous emission in anomalously dispersive cavities

Anomalously dispersive cavities, particularly white-light cavities, may have larger bandwidth to finesse ratios than their normally dispersive counterparts. Partly for this reason, they have been proposed for use in laser interferometer gravitational-wave observatory (LIGO)-like gravity-wave detectors and in ring-laser gyroscopes. In this paper we analyze the quantum noise associated with anomalously dispersive cavity modes. The vacuum field energy associated with a particular cavity mode is proportional to the cavity-averaged group velocity of that mode. For anomalously dispersive cavities with group index values between 1 and 0, this means that the total vacuum field energy associated with a particular cavity mode must exceed ({h_bar}/2{pi}){omega}/2. For white-light cavities in particular, the group index approaches zero and the vacuum field energy of a particular spatial mode may be significantly enhanced. We predict enhanced spontaneous emission rates into anomalously dispersive cavity modes and broadened laser linewidths when the linewidth of intracavity emitters is broader than the cavity linewidth.