Unsplit Spreading: An Overlooked Signature of Long-Range Interaction

Quantum Physics arXiv:2601.15752 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 22 Jan 2026] Title:Unsplit Spreading: An Overlooked Signature of Long-Range Interaction Authors:Jian-Feng Wu, Yi Huang, Yu-Xiang Zhang View a PDF of the paper titled Unsplit Spreading: An Overlooked Signature of Long-Range Interaction, by Jian-Feng Wu and 2 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:In conventional lattice models, the dispersion relation $\omega(k)$ is assumed to be a smooth function. We prove that this smoothness implies the splitting of an initially localized excitation into counter-propagating wave packets. Consequently, unsplit spreading can occur only when $\omega(k)$ develops singular features, precisely what long-range interactions enable. Remarkably, this phenomenon was clearly visible in published quantum simulation experiments as early as 2014, yet it has remained unrecognized or discussed as a distinct physical effect. We show that unsplit spreading emerges in realistic open quantum systems, such as 1D and 2D subwavelength atomic arrays, where the long-lived subradiant states host effective dispersion with the required singularities. Our work establishes unsplit spreading as an experimentally accessible, smoking-gun signature of singular band structure induced by long-range physics. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2601.15752 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2601.15752v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.15752 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Yu-Xiang Zhang [view email] [v1] Thu, 22 Jan 2026 08:24:57 UTC (6,398 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Unsplit Spreading: An Overlooked Signature of Long-Range Interaction, by Jian-Feng Wu and 2 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-01 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?)