Single-photon superradiance and subradiance in helical collectives of quantum emitters

Quantum Physics arXiv:2510.22468 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 26 Oct 2025] Title:Single-photon superradiance and subradiance in helical collectives of quantum emitters Authors:Hamza Patwa, Philip Kurian View a PDF of the paper titled Single-photon superradiance and subradiance in helical collectives of quantum emitters, by Hamza Patwa and 1 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Collective emission of light from distributions of two-level systems (TLSs) was first predicted in 1954 by Robert Dicke, who showed that when $N$ quantum emitters absorb photons, their collective radiative decay rate can be enhanced (superradiance) or suppressed (subradiance) relative to a single emitter. In this work, we derive novel analytical expressions for the collective decay rates and Lamb shifts for the interaction of a single photon with a continuous distribution of TLSs on an infinite line and an infinite helix. We compare these solutions to collectives of TLSs on a cylinder, finding limits in which the eigenvalues of structures of different dimensions are equal. We also compare our solution with arrangements where the emitter distribution is discrete rather than continuous, and when short- ($1/r^3$), intermediate- ($1/r^2$), and long-range ($1/r$) interaction terms are included. We find important differences between the discrete vector and continuous scalar emitter cases, which do not agree in the limit where discrete spacing goes to 0. The analytical solution for the helix is then used to make estimates of the maximally superradiant state, thermally averaged collective decay rate, and percentage of trapped states of quantum emitter architectures in protein fibers. Given the differences between our idealized infinite helix and the numerical model describing protein fibers, our analytical estimates show excellent agreement with the numerical results for sparse arrangements of emitters in protein fibers. Our work thus bridges the gap between different formalisms for superradiance, aids the engineering of devices which harness quantum optical effects for computing with superradiant error correction and subradiant memories, and motivates the discovery and creation of flexible platforms for quantum information processing using the intrinsic helical geometries of biomatter. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2510.22468 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2510.22468v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2510.22468 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Hamza Patwa [view email] [v1] Sun, 26 Oct 2025 00:52:17 UTC (16,525 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Single-photon superradiance and subradiance in helical collectives of quantum emitters, by Hamza Patwa and 1 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2025-10 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?)