Universal two-excitation scattering in two-dimensional subwavelength atomic arrays

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Hauptverfasser: Wang, Yidan, Rubies-Bigorda, Oriol, Walther, Valentin, Yelin, Susanne F.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Wang, Yidan
Rubies-Bigorda, Oriol
Walther, Valentin
Yelin, Susanne F.
author_facet Wang, Yidan
Rubies-Bigorda, Oriol
Walther, Valentin
Yelin, Susanne F.
contents Subwavelength atomic arrays are a leading platform for engineering strong light-matter interactions, presenting exciting opportunities for quantum science. However, a full understanding of their multi-excitation dynamics remains a significant challenge. In this work, we uncover a remarkable universal phenomenon that emerges in these arrays. Using scattering theory to analyze two-excitation interactions, we reveal a profound simplification near critical points of the collective atomic excitation band structure, determined solely from single-excitation properties. At these critical points, scattering becomes universal and the full two-excitation scattering matrix decomposes into a block-diagonal form. Remarkably, all scattering processes involving the photon field are completely suppressed, resulting in the perfect isolation of a unitary, nonlinear interaction channel between collective dark spin waves. Our findings provide exact analytical insights into few-body nonlinearities and establish a universal framework for analyzing complex scattering phenomena in ordered atomic systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_17085
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Universal two-excitation scattering in two-dimensional subwavelength atomic arrays
Wang, Yidan
Rubies-Bigorda, Oriol
Walther, Valentin
Yelin, Susanne F.
Quantum Physics
Atomic Physics
Subwavelength atomic arrays are a leading platform for engineering strong light-matter interactions, presenting exciting opportunities for quantum science. However, a full understanding of their multi-excitation dynamics remains a significant challenge. In this work, we uncover a remarkable universal phenomenon that emerges in these arrays. Using scattering theory to analyze two-excitation interactions, we reveal a profound simplification near critical points of the collective atomic excitation band structure, determined solely from single-excitation properties. At these critical points, scattering becomes universal and the full two-excitation scattering matrix decomposes into a block-diagonal form. Remarkably, all scattering processes involving the photon field are completely suppressed, resulting in the perfect isolation of a unitary, nonlinear interaction channel between collective dark spin waves. Our findings provide exact analytical insights into few-body nonlinearities and establish a universal framework for analyzing complex scattering phenomena in ordered atomic systems.
title Universal two-excitation scattering in two-dimensional subwavelength atomic arrays
topic Quantum Physics
Atomic Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.17085