Breaking the Exponential: Decoherence-Driven Power-Law Spontaneous Emission in Waveguide Quantum Electrodynamics

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2601.05884v1
• Date: Fri, 09 Jan 2026 16:04:22 GMT
• Title: Breaking the Exponential: Decoherence-Driven Power-Law Spontaneous Emission in Waveguide Quantum Electrodynamics
• Authors: Stefano Longhi,
• Abstract summary: In the absence of dephasing, emitter displays conventional exponential decay followed by a long-time power-law tail.<n>Strikingly, when dephasing is introduced, a robust power-law decay emerges already at short times.<n>Results reveal a novel, decoherence-induced mechanism for non-exponential spontaneous emission in waveguide QED platforms.
• Score: 0.0
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: We investigate the spontaneous emission of a two-level system coupled to a photonic waveguide, showing that dynamical dephasing in the photon modes profoundly alters the decay law. In the absence of dephasing, the emitter displays conventional exponential decay followed by a long-time power-law tail -- observable only at extremely low survival probabilities. Strikingly, when dephasing is introduced, a robust power-law decay emerges already at short times, driven by photon diffusion in the dynamically disordered environment rather than spectral edge effects. These results reveal a novel, decoherence-induced mechanism for non-exponential spontaneous emission in waveguide QED platforms.

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