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  • Open Access

Lindblad master equation for twisted photons in a turbulent atmosphere

Tim Ehret*, Vyacheslav Shatokhin, and Andreas Buchleitner

  • *Contact author: tim.ehret@physik.uni-freiburg.de
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Phys. Rev. A 114, 053713 – Published 10 November, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/m4rt-sss4

Abstract

We revisit a Lindblad master equation for the propagation of photons carrying orbital angular momentum through a turbulent atmosphere. This equation is here independently derived from the stochastic Hamiltonian formulation of paraxial optics, accounts for the Kolmogorov power spectrum of turbulence, and relies on an exact ensemble average over refractive index fluctuations. We show that, in contrast to previous representations, our present formulation admits efficient numerical solutions on suitably truncated Hilbert spaces, which we exploit in a study of the crosstalk of a single twisted photon propagating through the atmosphere.

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Phys. Rev. A 114, 053713– Published 10 November, 2026
  • Received 3 July 2026
  • Accepted 23 October 2026
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