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arXiv:2601.10087

Pseudomode approach to Fano effect in dissipative cavity quantum electrodynamics

Kazuki Kobayashi, Tatsuro Yuge

quant-phSubmitted Jan 15, 2026• Announced Jan 16, 2026• 0 citations• Revised Jun 8, 2026 (v2)
v1 · Jan 15, 2026v2 · Jun 8, 2026
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Abstract

We study the Fano effect in dissipative cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED), which originates from the interference between the emitter's direct radiation and that mediated by a cavity mode. Starting from a two-level system coupled to a structured reservoir, we show that a quantum master equation previously derived within the Born-Markov approximation can be rederived by introducing a single auxiliary mode through the pseudomode approach. We identify the corresponding spectral function of the system--environment interaction and show that it consists of a constant contribution and a non-Lorentzian contribution, whose interplay gives rise to a spectral profile of the Fano form. The constant contribution represents a Markovian background and is essential for obtaining a Lindblad master equation. Furthermore, by applying Fano diagonalization to an atom--cavity system coupled to common and independent reservoirs, we independently derive the same spectral function and clarify its physical origin. Our results provide a unified description of the Fano effect in single-mode cavity QED systems and reveal its non-Markovian origin encoded in the spectral function of the structured reservoir.

Comments
11 pages, 2 figures

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We study the Fano effect in dissipative cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED), which originates from the interference between the emitter's direct radiation and that mediated by a cavity mode. Starting from a two-level system coupled to a structured reservoir, we show that a quantum master equation previously derived within the Born-Markov approximation can be rederived by introducing a single auxiliary mode through the pseudomode approach. We identify the corresponding spectral function of the system--environment interaction and show that it consists of a constant contribution and a non-Lorentzian contribution, whose interplay gives rise to a spectral profile of the Fano form. The constant contribution represents a Markovian background and is essential for obtaining a Lindblad master equation. Furthermore, by applying Fano diagonalization to an atom--cavity system coupled to common and independent reservoirs, we independently derive the same spectral function and clarify its physical origin. Our results provide a unified description of the Fano effect in single-mode cavity QED systems and reveal its non-Markovian origin encoded in the spectral function of the structured reservoir.
Non-Markovian behaviour in atomic systems coupled to a structured reservoir of quantum EM field modes, such as in high Q cavities, is treated using a quasimode description, and the pseudo mode theory for single quantum reservoir excitations is obtained via Fano diagonalisation. The atomic transitions are coupled to a discrete set of (cavity) quasimodes, which are also coupled to a continuum set of (external) quasimodes with slowly varying coupling constants. Each pseudomode corresponds to a cavity quasimode, and the original reservoir structure is obtained in expressions for the equivalent atom-true mode coupling constants. Cases of multiple excitation of the reservoir are now treatable via Markovian master equations for the atom-discrete quasimode system.
This paper deals with non-Markovian behavior in atomic systems coupled to a structured reservoir of quantum electromagnetic field modes, with particular relevance to atoms interacting with the field in high-Q cavities or photonic band-gap materials. In cases such as the former, we show that the pseudomode theory for single-quantum reservoir excitations can be obtained by applying the Fano diagonalization method to a system in which the atomic transitions are coupled to a discrete set of (cavity) quasimodes, which in turn are coupled to a continuum set of (external) quasimodes with slowly varying coupling constants and continuum mode density. Each pseudomode can be identified with a discrete quasimode, which gives structure to the actual reservoir of true modes via the expressions for the equivalent atom-true mode coupling constants. The quasimode theory enables cases of multiple excitation of the reservoir to now be treated via Markovian master equations for the atom-discrete quasimode system. Applications of the theory to one, two, and many discrete quasimodes are made. For a simple photonic band-gap model, where the reservoir structure is associated with the true mode density rather than the coupling constants, the single quantum excitation case appears to be equivalent to a case with two discrete quasimodes.
We develop an exact framework for describing the non-Markovian dynamics of an open quantum system interacting with an environment modeled by a generalized spectral density function.The approach relies on mapping the initial system onto an auxiliary configuration, comprising the original open system coupled to a small number of discrete modes, which in turn are each coupled to an independent Markovian reservoir.Based on the connection between the discrete modes and the poles of the spectral density function, we show how expanding the system using the discrete modes allows for the full inclusion non-Markovian effects within an enlarged open system whose dynamics is governed by an exact Lindblad master equation.Initially we apply this result to obtain a generalization of the pseudomode method [B.M. Garraway, Phys. Rev. A. 55, 2290 (1997)] in cases where the spectral density function has a Lorentzian structure.For many other types of spectral density function, we extend our proof to show that an open system dynamics may be modeled physically using discrete modes which admit a non-Hermitian coupling to the system and for such cases determine the equivalent master equation to no longer be of Lindblad form.For applications involving two discrete modes, we demonstrate how to convert between pathological and Lindblad forms of the master equation using the techniques of the pseudomode method.
The interaction of a traveling pulse of quantum light with a localized quantum system shows non-Markovian features when scattering takes place in a structured environment. Here, we devise a non-Markovian input-output theory by coherently coupling the scatterer to a pseudomode, which decays into a Markovian reservoir. This incorporates memory effects of a structured environment without altering the cascaded nature of the Lindblad master equation, whose solution provides the quantum state of the output field of any desired mode. We apply our theory to the stimulated emission by a two-level atom, and to transmission of a Gaussian pulse through a cavity. We observe that the non-Markovian revival of coherence in the scatterer distorts the single-mode nature of the incoming pulse, thus resulting in a multimode output field.
Phenomenological approaches to photon loss have long been the workhorse of cavity-QED, but prove inadequate in the presence of sufficiently broadband light-matter interactions. We present a rigorous and ab initio derivation of a quantum master equation for a quantized optical cavity mode coupled to a dipole, using a quasinormal mode (QNM) quantization procedure for plasmonic and dielectric open-system cavity-QED, which is valid in broadband light-matter interaction regimes, including ultrastrong coupling (USC). The theory supports general three-dimensional resonators with arbitrary dispersion and loss, and thus can be applied to a wide range of realistic open cavities. Our ab initio and gauge-invariant approach fully recovers a recent result for the spectral density of a quantized cavity with a single dipole and reveals important departures from previous heuristic assumptions about system-reservoir coupling. We identify a new criterion for what we term the "broadband dissipative" regime of cavity-QED, where phenomenological models require corrections in accordance with the intrinsic and spatially-dependent complex phase of the QNM, and also shed light on fundamental limits to single-mode models in extreme coupling regimes. Using experimentally motivated plasmonic and dielectric cavity examples, we show validity ranges of our QNM master equation and spectral USC calculations, and discuss prospects for near-term experimental observation of the broadband dissipative effects.
We consider the cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) system described by the Rabi Hamiltonian, composed of a two-level atom and a single cavity field mode, subject to Markovian damping and dephasing mechanisms. It is shown that without the rotating wave approximation the asymptotic mean photon number and the atomic excitation probability are above the thermal values due to the anti-resonant term in the Rabi Hamiltonian, and are always greater than zero. These quantities are evaluated approximately for two different master equations and compared to exact numerical results, showing good agreement. We discuss the origin of this phenomenon and show that it also persists for an empty dissipative cavity if one uses a quite general form of the Markovian master equation.