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arXiv:2509.21569 · Physical Review Letters

Markovian Approach to N -Photon Correlations beyond the Quantum Regression Theorem

Mateusz J. Salamon, Oliver Dudgeon, Ahsan Nazir, Jake Iles-Smith

Published Jan 22, 2026• 2 citations

Abstract

Multiphoton correlations from quantum emitters coupled to vibrational environments lie beyond the reach of standard tools such as the quantum regression theorem. Here, we introduce a Markovian framework for computing frequency-resolved N-photon correlation functions that overcomes this limitation. Applying our approach to a driven semiconductor quantum dot provides a tractable description of phonon effects on fluorescence beyond the single-photon spectrum. Our method accurately captures the emergence of the phonon sideband, missed by conventional quantum regression theorem treatments, and reveals rich phonon-induced structure in the filtered two-photon spectrum. Strikingly, we find that photons emitted via the phonon sideband inherit second-order coherence properties of the Mollow triplet.

DOI: 10.1103/pgk3-b57l

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Multiphoton correlations from quantum emitters coupled to vibrational environments lie beyond the reach of standard tools such as the quantum regression theorem. Here, we introduce a Markovian framework for computing frequency-resolved N-photon correlation functions that overcomes this limitation. Applying our approach to a driven semiconductor quantum dot provides a tractable description of phonon effects on fluorescence beyond the single-photon spectrum. Our method accurately captures the emergence of the phonon sideband, missed by conventional quantum regression theorem treatments, and reveals rich phonon-induced structure in the filtered two-photon spectrum. Strikingly, we find that photons emitted via the phonon sideband inherit second-order coherence properties of the Mollow triplet.

We derive an extension to the quantum regression theorem which facilitates the calculation of two-time correlation functions and emission spectra for systems undergoing non-Markovian evolution. The derivation exploits projection operator techniques, with which we obtain explicit equations of motion for the correlation functions, making only a second-order expansion in the system-environment coupling strength and invoking the Born approximation at a fixed initial time. The results are used to investigate a driven semiconductor quantum dot coupled to an acoustic phonon bath, where we find the non-Markovian nature of the dynamics has observable signatures in the form of phonon sidebands in the resonance fluorescence emission spectrum. Furthermore, we use recently developed non-Markovianity measures to demonstrate an associated flow of information from the phonon bath back into the quantum dot exciton system.

Recently, the concept of an ''

N

-photon spectrum'' -- a spectrally resolved

N

-photon correlation function -- has been introduced as an innovative quantum optics characterization tool that uniquely reveals information about pathways underlying the generation of light in a given source. Here, the authors investigate experimentally the three-photon spectrum of resonance fluorescence from a single semiconductor quantum dot. The observations agree with previous theoretical work, revealing significantly more pronounced photon antibunching at the Mollow triplet sidebands and more strongly correlated emission through virtual states compared to the two-photon counterpart.

The quantum regression theorem (QRT) is the most widely used tool for calculating multitime correlation functions for the assessment of quantum emitters. It is an approximate method based on a Markov assumption for environmental coupling. In this Letter we quantify properties of photons emitted from a single quantum dot coupled to phonons. For the single-photon purity and the indistinguishability, we compare numerically exact path-integral results with those obtained from the QRT. It is demonstrated that the QRT systematically overestimates the influence of the environment for typical quantum dots used in quantum information technology.