The spatial confinement of defect-induced bound states is conventionally governed by the effective mass in dispersive bands. More recently, Compact Localized States (CLSs) arising from exact destructive interference have been utilized to achieve confinement in flat bands. However, CLSs rely on pristine lattice symmetries and fine-tuned defect profiles. The introduction of a generic local impurity inevitably breaks these strict phase-matching conditions, resulting in extensive bound states whose fundamental length scale has remained an open question. Here, we establish a third regime of confinement: the quantum metric bound state. We provide a rigorous mathematical proof demonstrating that in the absence of kinetic energy and CLS protection, the exponential decay length of these states is lower-bounded by the quantum metric of the unperturbed flat band. We demonstrate the tightness of this geometric limit by constructing a family of highly tunable flat-band generators, and we verify its universality across diverse realistic architectures. Ultimately, this classification establishes the independently measurable quantum metric as a predictive design principle for engineering confined modes in synthetic wave platforms.
The spatial confinement of defect-induced bound states is conventionally governed by the effective mass in dispersive bands. More recently, Compact Localized States (CLSs) arising from exact destructive interference have been utilized to achieve confinement in flat bands. However, CLSs rely on pristine lattice symmetries and fine-tuned defect profiles. The introduction of a generic local impurity inevitably breaks these strict phase-matching conditions, resulting in extensive bound states whose fundamental length scale has remained an open question. Here, we establish a third regime of confinement: the quantum metric bound state. We provide a rigorous mathematical proof demonstrating that in the absence of kinetic energy and CLS protection, the exponential decay length of these states is lower-bounded by the quantum metric of the unperturbed flat band. We demonstrate the tightness of this geometric limit by constructing a family of highly tunable flat-band generators, and we verify its universality across diverse realistic architectures. Ultimately, this classification establishes the independently measurable quantum metric as a predictive design principle for engineering confined modes in synthetic wave platforms.
In flat-band systems with quenched kinetic energy, most of the conventional length scales related to the band dispersion become ineffectual. Although a few geometric length scales, such as the quantum metric length, can still be defined, because of their embedding dependence, i.e., the dependence on the choice of orbital positions used to construct the tight-binding model, they cannot serve as a universal length scale of the flat-band systems. Here, we introduce an embedding independent length scale ξflat of a flat band that is defined as the localization length of an in-gap state proximate to the flat band. Because ξflat is derived from the intrinsic localization of compact localized states, it is solely determined by the Hamiltonian and provides a robust foundation for embedding independent observables. We show analytically that the superconducting coherence length in a flat-band superconductor is given by ξflat in the weak-coupling limit, thereby identifying ξflat as the relevant length scale for many-body phenomena. Numerical simulations on various lattice models confirm all theoretical predictions, including the correspondence between ξflat and the superconducting coherence length. Our results highlight ξflat as a universal length scale for flat bands and open a pathway to embedding independent characterization of interacting flat-band materials.
In flat-band systems with quenched kinetic energy, most of the conventional length scales related to the band dispersion become ineffectual. Although a few geometric length scales, such as the quantum metric length, can still be defined, because of their embedding dependence, i.e., the dependence on the choice of orbital positions used to construct the tight-binding model, they cannot serve as a universal length scale of the flat-band systems. Here, we introduce an embedding independent length scale ξ_{flat} of a flat band that is defined as the localization length of an in-gap state proximate to the flat band. Because ξ_{flat} is derived from the intrinsic localization of compact localized states, it is solely determined by the Hamiltonian and provides a robust foundation for embedding-independent observables. We show analytically that the superconducting coherence length in a flat-band superconductor is given by ξ_{flat} in the weak-coupling limit, thereby identifying ξ_{flat} as the relevant length scale for many-body phenomena. Numerical simulations on various lattice models confirm all theoretical predictions, including the correspondence between ξ_{flat} and the superconducting coherence length. Our results highlight ξ_{flat} as an intrinsic, embedding-independent length scale governing exponential localization associated with flat bands.
Real-space interference of wave packets is governed by their central momentum separation and momentum width, which set the oscillation wavelength and spatial envelope, respectively. Here, we show that in crystalline systems, quantum metric distribution in an isolated band can similarly give rise to real-space interference through the evanescent tails of a localized bound state. The location and width of a quantum metric hot spot in the momentum space set a complex wavevector as one evanescent plane wave component of a bound state. Consequently, with multiple quantum metric hot spots, the density distribution of a bound state or the total density of two spatially overlapped bound states exhibits an interference pattern, where the oscillation period and long-range decay length are determined by the momentum-space separation of the hot spots and the width of the narrowest hot spots, respectively. This quantum-geometric interference is particularly pronounced in (nearly) flat bands, where competing scales from band dispersion are suppressed. Furthermore, we demonstrate that using a Josephson STM the real-space interference can be experimentally observed through the tip-position dependence of the Josephson critical current. Our results reveal a direct correspondence between momentum-space quantum geometry and real-space interference, showing how bound-state profiles encode the momentum-resolved quantum metric.
We develop a comprehensive theoretical framework that unifies quantum emission dynamics in one-dimensional Lieb lattices, bridging the gap between ideal flat-band coherence and realistic narrow-band dissipation. By coupling an emitter to sublattices with finite flat-band wavefunction overlap, we activate a collective, size-independent interaction fundamentally distinct from dispersive-band processes. Controllably breaking lattice symmetry transforms the flat band into a narrow dispersive band, enabling a continuous crossover from non-Markovian to Markovian dynamics governed by the competition between coupling strength and engineered bandwidth. Crucially, we derive explicit scaling laws that provide a quantitative blueprint for tuning spontaneous emission from coherent trapping to Markovian decay. Our work provides a unified framework that connects idealized flat-band physics to emerging narrow-band platforms such as moireˊ photonic crystals, offering a practical toolkit for interpreting experiments and engineering quantum emission in structured photonic environments.
Multimode squeezing is a key resource for continuous-variable quantum technologies, but its spatial range in bosonic lattices is usually tied to dispersive propagation. Here we show that parametric pairing can create an exactly flat Bogoliubov band spanned by compact Bogoliubov generators, while producing phase-sensitive anomalous correlations and sub-vacuum collective-mode squeezing that extend far beyond their finite support. Each compact generator mixes annihilation and creation operators, thereby encoding the Bogoliubov squeezing structure, and neighboring translated generators can have nonzero commutator overlap. Enforcing canonical bosonic commutation relations therefore requires spatially extended linear combinations of these translated compact generators, which define the canonical Bogoliubov modes. The squeezing transformation of these modes varies with momentum and is quantified by the squeezing-sector symplectic quantum metric. A complex-momentum singularity of the analytically continued canonical Bogoliubov modes sets both the anomalous-correlation decay length and the momentum-space width of this metric, defining an intrinsic quantum-geometric length scale. This singularity can be tuned continuously while preserving exact flatness, thereby controlling the spatial range of correlations and squeezing. Away from exact flatness, long-distance correlations persist through multiple decay channels, while modes localized by defects and dimerized boundaries provide complementary probes of the underlying quantum geometry. In the weak-damping limit, the same quantum-geometric length scale can be extracted from frequency-filtered two-port correlations. Our results establish the quantum geometry of canonical Bogoliubov modes as a mechanism for spatially extended quantum resources arising from compact Bogoliubov generators.
Superconductivity in flat-band systems, governed by quantum metric of Bloch states rather than the BCS framework, exhibits unique phenomena due to the vanishing electron group velocity. Here, we propose the vortex states and vortex size as direct probes to explore the quantum geometry effects in flat-band superconductors. We show that flat-band vortex bound states are sharply localized near the vortex core, and the energy gap between the lowest two bound states is on the order of the bulk superconducting gap. Both the spatial spread and energy scales of bound states are controlled by the flat-band's quantum metric length. Moreover, the vortex size at zero temperature, set by the quantum metric length, is atomic in scale and independent of interaction strength. Near Tc, the vortex size corresponds to the Ginzburg-Landau coherence length, diverges as ξ∼Tc/(Tc−T)ξ0, where ξ0 depends linearly on the quantum metric length. Thus, the quantum metric serves as the lower bound for vortex state spread and vortex size. We also introduce perturbations to make the flat band dispersive, and distinguish flat-band vortices from BCS-like vortices. Our results establish vortices as universal probes of quantum geometry in flat-band superconductors.