Dissipative stabilization of dark quantum dimers via squeezed vacuum

Abstract

Understanding the mechanism through which an open quantum system exchanges information with an environment is central to the creation and stabilization of quantum states. This theme has been explored recently, with attention mostly focused on system control or environment engineering. Here, we bring these ideas together to describe the many-body dynamics of an extended atomic array coupled to a squeezed vacuum. We show that fluctuations can drive the array into a pure dark state decoupled from the environment. The dark state is obtained for an even number of atoms and consists of maximally entangled atomic pairs, or dimers, that mimic the behavior of the squeezed field. Each pair displays reduced fluctuations in one polarization quadrature and amplified in another. This dissipation-induced stabilization relies on an efficient transfer of correlations between pairs of photons and atoms. It uncovers the mechanism through which squeezed light causes an atomic array to self-organize and illustrates the increasing importance of spatial correlations in modern quantum technologies where many-body effects play a central role.