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Correlation functions for quantum dynamics of coupled quasinormal modes and quantum emitters interacting via finite-delay propagating photons

Robert Meiners Fuchs1,*, Juanjuan Ren2, Sebastian Franke1,2, Stephen Hughes2, and Marten Richter1,†

  • 1Institut für Physik und Astronomie, Nichtlineare Optik und Quantenelektronik, Technische Universität Berlin, Hardenbergstr. 36, EW 7-1, 10623 Berlin, Germany
  • 2Department of Physics, Engineering Physics, and Astronomy, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada

  • *Contact author: r.meiners.fuchs@tu-berlin.de
  • †Contact author: marten.richter@tu-berlin.de
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Phys. Rev. A 114, 023725 – Published 25 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/xlv4-1bst

Abstract

A time-dependent theory for the interactions between spatially separated lossy cavities in a homogeneous background medium using quantized quasinormal modes (QNMs) is presented. The cavities interact via a bath of traveling photons, described by nonbosonic operators that are orthogonal to the open-cavity QNMs. The retarded (i.e., time-delayed) intercavity dynamics are fully described by system-bath correlation functions, in which the emission from one cavity appears as the input field for another. Coupling between quantum emitters (described as two-level systems), placed inside a cavity or embedded in an external medium, and the electromagnetic field (cavity modes and bath photons) is included in the theory, which gives rise to both bath-mediated and QNM-mediated interactions between the emitters.

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Phys. Rev. A 114, 023725– Published 25 August, 2026
  • Received 15 April 2026
  • Accepted 30 July 2026
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