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Benchmarking quantum phase-space methods for near-resonant light propagation

Mojdeh S. Najafabadi1,*, Joel F. Corney2, Luis L. Sánchez-Soto1,3,4, and Gerd Leuchs1,5

  • *Contact author: mojdeh.shikhali-najafabadi@mpl.mpg.de
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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 023353 – Published 29 June, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/xc3m-hsyx

Abstract

We study the dynamics of light interacting with a near-resonant atomic medium using the truncated Wigner and positive P phase-space representations. By mapping the atomic degrees of freedom via the Jordan-Schwinger transformation, we first analyze the system under unitary evolution before extending the treatment to include an optical reservoir. While both methods capture the main features of the light-matter dynamics, our results demonstrate that the truncated Wigner approximation deviates significantly at higher interaction strengths and in regimes where reservoir-induced noise is prominent.

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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 023353– Published 29 June, 2026
  • Received 22 February 2026
  • Accepted 9 June 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by Max Planck Society.

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