{
  "abstract": "At low temperature, collective light-induced dipole-dipole interactions are known to strongly reshape the optical response of atomic clouds, revealing the breakdown of the independent-scattering picture as the density increases. While thermal motion is generally believed to progressively suppress these interactions, the microscopic mechanisms behind this suppression remain largely unexplored. Here, we develop a microscopic theory of the optical response of a dilute atomic gas at finite temperature, explicitly accounting for atomic ballistic motion during the recurrent-scattering events associated with the collective corrections. Using a diagrammatic approach for scalar light, we derive the collective contribution to the optical permittivity and characterize its behavior across the full temperature range. We find that thermal corrections scale as $\\sim T$ at low temperature, while recurrent-scattering contributions are suppressed as $\\sim T^{-3/2}$ at high temperature. Our predictions are confirmed by extensive coupled-dipole simulations that explicitly account for atomic motion. These simulations also reveal the inaccuracy of the modified frozen-dipole approximation commonly used to treat thermal effects. Finally, extending our theory to vector light, we provide a complete picture of how the resonance shift continuously evolves from the collective Lamb shift at low temperatures to the classical Lorentz-Lorenz shift at high temperatures.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2609.29786",
  "author_total": 3,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Tanja Schoger"
    },
    {
      "name": "Romain Pierrat"
    },
    {
      "name": "Nicolas Cherroret"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/djfwxfkjh88zj.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2609.29786",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "djfwxfkjh88zj",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.29786",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "LicenseRef-arXiv-nonexclusive-1.0",
  "licence_label": "arXiv licence",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "cond-mat.dis-nn"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "cond-mat.quant-gas"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "physics.atom-ph"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3107|Quantum optics and atomic interactions"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7214380111",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.29786",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-24",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/djfwxfkjh88zj.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:24:11Z",
      "native_id": "2609.29786",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.29786"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:cond-mat.quant-gas",
      "subfield": "amo"
    },
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:cond-mat.dis-nn",
      "subfield": "condensed-matter"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Microscopic theory of the collective optical response of dilute atomic clouds at finite temperature",
  "title_text": "Microscopic theory of the collective optical response of dilute atomic clouds at finite temperature",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:24:11Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/djfwxfkjh88zj",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}