Emergent SSH physics and localization in a cavity--atom system beyond the rotating-wave approximation
Abstract
We investigate a cavity--atom system beyond the rotating-wave approximation and recast its dynamics as an effective tight-binding problem in the excitation-number basis. The same experimentally relevant light--matter platform exhibits two distinct regimes controlled by the photon number. In the large-photon-number regime, the hopping amplitudes become nearly uniform and the effective lattice reduces to a dimerized SSH-type chain subject to a linear energy gradient. The spectrum then organizes into one or two Wannier--Stark ladders, giving rise to controllable Bloch and Bloch--Zener oscillations and quantitatively explaining the observed revival patterns. In the small-photon-number regime, the intrinsic √(n̅+(⋯)) dependence produces a pronounced hopping deformation, namely dimerized couplings that increase along the excitation-number lattice. This deformation reshapes the density of states, enhances collective localization, and generates an energy-resolved spatial bias of the eigenstates. The corresponding real-time dynamics displays direction-dependent anomalous diffusion together with Bloch-like revivals and beat phenomena in selected parameter windows. Our results show that the same cavity--atom platform can realize both emergent ladder spectra and hopping-induced localization in excitation-number space.
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BibTeX
@misc{shen2026emergent,
title = {{Emergent SSH physics and localization in a cavity--atom system beyond the rotating-wave approximation}},
author = {H. Shen and J. Cao and R. Wang and X. Z. Zhang},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.11897},
eprint = {2610.11897},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11897},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Emergent SSH physics and localization in a cavity--atom system beyond the rotating-wave approximation
AU - H. Shen
AU - J. Cao
AU - R. Wang
AU - X. Z. Zhang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/08
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.11897
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11897
AB - We investigate a cavity--atom system beyond the rotating-wave approximation and recast its dynamics as an effective tight-binding problem in the excitation-number basis. The same experimentally relevant light--matter platform exhibits two distinct regimes controlled by the photon number. In the large-photon-number regime, the hopping amplitudes become nearly uniform and the effective lattice reduces to a dimerized SSH-type chain subject to a linear energy gradient. The spectrum then organizes into one or two Wannier--Stark ladders, giving rise to controllable Bloch and Bloch--Zener oscillations and quantitatively explaining the observed revival patterns. In the small-photon-number regime, the intrinsic √(n̅+(⋯)) dependence produces a pronounced hopping deformation, namely dimerized couplings that increase along the excitation-number lattice. This deformation reshapes the density of states, enhances collective localization, and generates an energy-resolved spatial bias of the eigenstates. The corresponding real-time dynamics displays direction-dependent anomalous diffusion together with Bloch-like revivals and beat phenomena in selected parameter windows. Our results show that the same cavity--atom platform can realize both emergent ladder spectra and hopping-induced localization in excitation-number space.
ER -