Interaction of twisted light with free twisted atoms
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Quantum Physics arXiv:2604.03607 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 4 Apr 2026] Title:Interaction of twisted light with free twisted atoms Authors:I. Pavlov, A. Chaikovskaia, D. Karlovets View a PDF of the paper titled Interaction of twisted light with free twisted atoms, by I. Pavlov and 1 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:We investigate absorption and scattering of structured light by atoms, treating the photon and the atomic center of mass as spatially localized wave packets. We show that vortex photons can transfer orbital angular momentum (OAM) to the atomic center of mass with near-perfect efficiency in head-on collisions when the impact parameter $b$ is smaller than the atomic transverse coherence length $\sigma$, which ranges from nanometers to sub-micrometer scales. Larger offsets result in a shifted mean OAM and a finite variance, both controlled by the ratio $b/\sigma$. The wave-packet nature of light enables electronic transitions that violate standard selection rules, albeit with a clear hierarchy where the dipole transition dominates. For femtosecond pulses, the finite spatial coherence of the photon leads to measurable shaping of the resonant absorption lines. We demonstrate a transverse recoil of the atom in a vicinity of the photonic vortex, dubbed "the superkick", and its dual effect - "the selfkick" - when an initially twisted atomic packet experiences recoil upon absorbing a gaussian photon. These phenomena are within reach of experimental capabilities using structured light in combination with cold atomic beams and ions in Penning traps, providing a route to the controlled generation and manipulation of non-gaussian atomic packets. Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2604.03607 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2604.03607v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2604.03607 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Ilia Pavlov [view email] [v1] Sat, 4 Apr 2026 06:42:22 UTC (1,072 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Interaction of twisted light with free twisted atoms, by I. Pavlov and 1 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-04 Change to browse by: physics physics.atom-ph References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)