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arXiv:2604.05473 · Advanced Quantum Technologies

Non-Markovian exceptional points in waveguide quantum electrodynamics

Stefano Longhi

quant-phphysics.opticsSubmitted Apr 7, 2026• Announced Apr 8, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

Spontaneous emission of a quantum emitter, such as an excited atom, is a fundamental process in quantum electrodynamics (QED), typically associated with exponential decay to the ground state accompanied by irreversible photon emission. This simple Markovian picture, however, is profoundly modified in the presence of time-delayed feedback, structured continua, or cooperative emission, as occurs when an emitter radiates in front of a mirror, when several emitters radiate collectively, or in the case of a giant atom. In such regimes, strong non-Markovian dynamics arise from photon reabsorption and interference effects, leading to pronounced deviations from exponential decay. Here we demonstrate the emergence of exceptional points (EPs) in these highly non-Markovian waveguide-QED environments, i.e., non-Markovian EPs. These EPs appear directly in the relaxation dynamics as sharp transitions to oscillatory behavior, manifested by the appearance of real zeros in the excited-state amplitude. We analyze in detail the spontaneous emission of giant atoms with two or more coupling points, highlighting the mechanisms leading to non-Markovian EPs, and show that similar phenomena arise in other waveguide-QED settings, such as the collective spontaneous emission of spatially separated point-like emitters. Our results reveal waveguide-QED systems as experimentally accessible platforms for realizing and exploring non-Markovian EP physics.

Journal reference
Advanced Quantum Technologies 9 (4), e70277 (2026)
DOI
10.1002/qute.70277
Comments
12 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Advanced Quantum Technologies (Wiley)

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Spontaneous emission of a quantum emitter, such as an excited atom, is a fundamental process in quantum electrodynamics (QED), typically associated with exponential decay to the ground state accompanied by irreversible photon emission. This simple Markovian picture, however, is profoundly modified in the presence of time-delayed feedback, structured continua, or cooperative emission, as occurs when an emitter radiates in front of a mirror, when several emitters radiate collectively, or in the case of a giant atom. In such regimes, strong non-Markovian dynamics arise from photon reabsorption and interference effects, leading to pronounced deviations from exponential decay. Here we demonstrate the emergence of exceptional points (EPs) in these highly non-Markovian waveguide-QED environments, i.e., non-Markovian EPs. These EPs appear directly in the relaxation dynamics as sharp transitions to oscillatory behavior, manifested by the appearance of real zeros in the excited-state amplitude. We analyze in detail the spontaneous emission of giant atoms with two or more coupling points, highlighting the mechanisms leading to non-Markovian EPs, and show that similar phenomena arise in other waveguide-QED settings, such as the collective spontaneous emission of spatially separated point-like emitters. Our results reveal waveguide-QED systems as experimentally accessible platforms for realizing and exploring non-Markovian EP physics.
Spontaneous emission of an excited atom in a featureless continuum of electromagnetic modes is a fundamental process in quantum electrodynamics associated with an exponential decay of the quantum emitter to its ground state accompanied by an irreversible emission of a photon. However, such a simple scenario is deeply modified when considering a "giant" atom, i.e., an atom whose dimension is larger than the wavelength of the emitted photon. In such an unconventional regime, non-Markovian effects and strong deviations from an exponential decay are observed owing to interference effects arising from nonlocal light-atom coupling. Here we suggest a photonic simulation of non-Markovian giant atom decay, based on light escape dynamics in an optical waveguide nonlocally coupled to a waveguide lattice. Major effects, such as nonexponential decay, enhancement, or slowing down of the decay, and formation of atom-field dark states can be emulated in this system.
We explore the collective Zeno dynamics of giant artificial atoms that are coupled, via multiple coupling points, to a common photonic or acoustic reservoir. In this regime, the establishment of atomic cooperativity and the revivification of exponential decay are highly intertwined, which is utterly beyond the non-Markovian regime with only retarded backaction. We reveal that giant atoms build up their collective emission smoothly from the decay rate of zero to that predicted by Markovian approximation and show great disparity between different waveguide QED setups. As a comparison, the steplike growth of instantaneous decay rates in the retardation-only picture has also been shown. All of these theoretical pictures predict the same collective behavior in the long time limit. From a phenomenological standpoint, we observe that the atomic superradiance exhibits significant directional property. In addition, the subradiant photons feature prolonged oscillation in the early stage of collective radiance, where the energy is exchanged remarkably between giant emitters and the field. Our results might be probed in state-of-art waveguide QED experiments and fundamentally broaden the fields of collective emission in systems with giant atoms. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Waveguide quantum electrodynamics platforms have emerged as promising candidates for exploring and implementing non-Markovian quantum phenomena. In this work, we investigate the formation and dynamics of superpositions of bound states in a cavity array waveguide coupled to two spatially separated quantum emitters. By tuning the system parameters, we show that spontaneous emission can drive the system into non-local equilibrium states in which both photonic and emitter populations exhibit persistent oscillations. These states arise from the coexistence of bound states embedded in the energy continuum and bound states outside it, leading to hybrid oscillatory modes. We analytically derive the conditions required for the emergence of these states, numerically simulate their formation through spontaneous emission, and predict their long-time behaviour. Our results demonstrate that such bound-state superpositions enable the generation of emitter-emitter interaction through free evolution, while supporting oscillatory breathing modes of the photon density between the emitters.
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We investigate the spontaneous emission of a two-level system coupled to a photonic waveguide, showing that dynamical dephasing in the photon modes profoundly alters the decay law. In the absence of dephasing, the emitter displays conventional exponential decay followed by a long-time power-law tail -- observable only at extremely low survival probabilities. Strikingly, when dephasing is introduced, a robust power-law decay emerges already at short times, driven by photon diffusion in the dynamically disordered environment rather than spectral edge effects. These results reveal a novel, decoherence-induced mechanism for non-exponential spontaneous emission in waveguide QED platforms.
One of the most remarkable features that distinguish open systems from closed ones is the presence of exceptional points (EPs), where two or more eigenvectors of a non-Hermitian operator coalesce, accompanying the convergence of the corresponding eigenvalues. So far, EPs have been demonstrated on a number of platforms, ranging from classical optical systems to fully quantum-mechanical spin-boson models. In these demonstrations, the reservoir that induced the non-Hermiticity was treated as a Markovian one, without considering its memory effect. We here present the first experimental demonstration of non-Markovian quantum EPs, engineered by coupling a Josephson-junction-based qubit to a leaky electromagnetic resonator, which acts as a non-Markovian reservoir. We map out the spectrum of the extended Liouvillian superoperator by observing the quantum state evolution of the qubit and the pseudomode, in which the memory of the reservoir is encoded. We identify a twofold second-order EP and a third-order EP in the Liouvillian spectrum, which cannot be realized with a Markovian reservoir. Our results pave the way for experimental exploration of exotic phenomena associated with non-Markovian quantum EPs.