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arXiv:2604.23164 · Physical Review Letters

Quantum Criticality from Spectral Collapse in the Two-Photon Rabi Model

Jiong Li, Jun-Ling Wang, Qing-Hu Chen, Hai-Qing Lin

quant-phSubmitted Apr 25, 2026• Announced Apr 28, 2026• 0 citations• Revised Sep 16, 2026 (v2)
v1 · Apr 25, 2026v2 · Sep 16, 2026
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Abstract

Spectral collapse in the two-photon quantum Rabi model (tpQRM) has long been regarded as insufficient to establish quantum criticality because, under generic conditions, the lowest excitation gap remains finite. We show that, at a special qubit frequency, spectral collapse in the anisotropic tpQRM constitutes a continuous quantum phase transition governed by a single soft mode. The same-parity gap, set by the vanishing effective oscillator frequency, closes with exponent $zν= 1/2$, whereas the lower different-parity gap arises from symmetry-induced splitting. Parity symmetry excludes the different-parity excitation from the quantum Fisher information response and restricts Kibble-Zurek dynamics to excitations within the ground-state parity sector. Together, these results identify the same-parity excitation as the soft mode and its gap as the characteristic energy scale. The corresponding critical exponents, $ν=1/4$ and $z=2$, place the anisotropic tpQRM in the same universality class as the standard QRM. Our results establish spectral collapse as a potential route to experimentally accessible quantum criticality in a few-body system and show that universality is determined by the soft-mode structure rather than by the closing of the lowest excitation gap.

Journal reference
Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 123602 (2026)
DOI
10.1103/ctp9-k77q
Comments
18 pages, 7 figures

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Spectral collapse in the two-photon quantum Rabi model (tpQRM) has long been regarded as insufficient to establish quantum criticality because, under generic conditions, the lowest excitation gap remains finite. We show that, at a special qubit frequency, spectral collapse in the anisotropic tpQRM constitutes a continuous quantum phase transition governed by a single soft mode. The same-parity gap, set by the vanishing effective oscillator frequency, closes with exponent zν=1/2zν= 1/2zν=1/2, whereas the lower different-parity gap arises from symmetry-induced splitting. Parity symmetry excludes the different-parity excitation from the quantum Fisher information response and restricts Kibble-Zurek dynamics to excitations within the ground-state parity sector. Together, these results identify the same-parity excitation as the soft mode and its gap as the characteristic energy scale. The corresponding critical exponents, ν=1/4ν=1/4ν=1/4 and z=2z=2z=2, place the anisotropic tpQRM in the same universality class as the standard QRM. Our results establish spectral collapse as a potential route to experimentally accessible quantum criticality in a few-body system and show that universality is determined by the soft-mode structure rather than by the closing of the lowest excitation gap.
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In this communication, based upon a squeezed-state trial wave function, we have performed a simple variational study of the spectral collapse in the anisotropic two-photon Rabi model. Our analysis indicates that the light-matter interaction and the spin-flipping (together with the anisotropy) effectively constitute two competing impacts upon the radiation mode. Whilst the former tries to decrease the radiation mode frequency, the latter may counteract or reinforce it. The light-matter interaction appears to dominate the frequency modulation as its coupling strengths go beyond the critical values, leading to the emergence of the spectral collapse. However, at the critical couplings the dominance of the light-matter interaction is not complete, and incomplete spectral collapse appears. Accordingly, at the critical couplings the eigenenergy spectrum comprises both a set of discrete energy levels and a continuous energy spectrum. The discrete eigenenergy spectrum can be derived via a simple one-to-one mapping to the bound state problem of a particle of variable effective mass in a finite potential well, and the number of bound states available is determined by the energy difference between the two atomic levels. Each of these eigenenergies has a twofold degeneracy corresponding to the spin degree of freedom.
The anisotropic two-photon quantum Rabi model is studied using the Bogoliubov operator approach. Doubly degenerate exceptional states are identified using analytical methods. By adjusting the position of the last exceptional point belonging to two adjacent energy levels, we derive a condition for the absence of the discrete spectrum at the critical coupling where ``spectral collapse'' occurs. In this special case, the spectrum becomes fully continuous above a threshold energy, with no bound states existing, whereas the ground state remains gapped in the general case. More interestingly, we rigorously find that a finite number of bound states exist between two anisotropy-dependent critical atomic frequencies, with infinitely many bound states beyond this frequency regime. In this manner, all issues in the two-photon quantum Rabi model are resolved.
Abstract Applications of quantum systems with non‐linear light–matter interaction have to deal with a peculiar instability in the ultra‐ and deep strong coupling regime, the so‐called “spectral collapse.” To solve this problem, the present work investigates a generalized quantum Rabi model (QRM) with two‐ and four‐photon terms in view of applications for critical quantum metrology. In the introduced model, the spectral collapse occurring in the standard two‐photon QRM is stabilized by the presence of the quartic potential. The collapse is then transformed into a quantum phase transition, which occurs in the low‐frequency limit of the light mode, whose remnant at finite ratio between qubit and mode frequencies can be applied to critically enhanced quantum metrology. It is found that the four‐photon term entails a much higher measurement precision compared to the standard two‐photon QRM. The mechanism behind the higher precision can be traced to the different behavior of the ground state wave function as the system is tuned through the transition. As the standard two‐photon QRM, despite the absence of the spectral collapse, the proposed model allows for a finite preparation time for the probe state (PTPS).