Theory of the Collective Many-body Subradiance in Waveguide QED

Quantum Physics [Submitted on 5 Apr 2026] Theory of the Collective Many-body Subradiance in Waveguide QED Xin Wang, Junjun He, Zeyang Liao We present an analytical theory for the most subradiant modes in a finite one-dimensional emitter array coupled to either an ideal or a nonideal waveguide. Using an effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonian together with a Bragg-edge open-boundary ansatz, we derive compact eigenvalue expressions showing that the linewidths of the most subradiant states exhibit a universal N^{-3} scaling in both cases. However, in the deep-subwavelength regime, the decay rates display even-odd oscillations due to boundary interference. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the collective energy shift of the most subradiant state approaches a constant value that depends on the atomic separation, with the leading finite-size correction scaling as N^{-2}. These results unify the roles of Bragg-edge interference, finite-size effects, and near-field dipole-dipole interactions in shaping ultranarrow, strongly shifted subradiant resonances, providing a transparent framework beyond the ideal-waveguide limit and opening potential applications in subradiant spectroscopy and waveguide-QED-based sensing. Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2604.03954 [quant-ph]   (or arXiv:2604.03954v1 [quant-ph] for this version)   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2604.03954 Focus to learn more Submission history From: Zeyang Liao [view email] [v1] Sun, 5 Apr 2026 04:08:47 UTC (860 KB) Access Paper: HTML (experimental) view license Current browse context: quant-ph < prev   |   next > new | recent | 2026-04 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar Export BibTeX Citation 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 Demos Related Papers About arXivLabs Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)