Multi-level quantum emitter in an optical waveguide: paradoxes and resolutions
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Quantum Physics arXiv:2601.09854 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 14 Jan 2026] Title:Multi-level quantum emitter in an optical waveguide: paradoxes and resolutions Authors:Ben Lang View a PDF of the paper titled Multi-level quantum emitter in an optical waveguide: paradoxes and resolutions, by Ben Lang View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:We theoretically investigate the optical dipole interaction between a multi-level quantum system and a single-mode optical waveguide of any local polarisation. We investigate several paradoxical seeming situations, for example we find a situation in which there exist two non-orthogonal quantum states, each of which results in a photon flux in the opposite direction to the other. We show how, despite appearances, this does not break the unitary requirements of quantum mechanics. We also find that an isotropic quantum emitter can be either reflective or transmissive to light depending on the waveguide polarisation at the emitter location, indeed in the zero loss limit such a system changes from 100% transmission to 100% reflection due to an infinitesimal polarisation rotation. An example case for a four level system is also considered, which is found to operate as a non-destructive parity measurement of the photon number. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Optics (physics.optics) Cite as: arXiv:2601.09854 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2601.09854v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.09854 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Ben Lang [view email] [v1] Wed, 14 Jan 2026 20:29:24 UTC (241 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Multi-level quantum emitter in an optical waveguide: paradoxes and resolutions, by Ben LangView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-01 Change to browse by: physics physics.optics 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?) Links to Code Toggle Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?) 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?)