Exploring the role of entanglement in disordered polaritonic chemistry

Johannes Schachenmayer CNRS, CESQ/ISIS, Université de Strasbourg

To gain insight on fundamental physical processes in polaritonic chemistry, we study a bottom-up approach with minimal quantum many-body models that include electronic, photonic and vibrational degrees of freedom in their simplest form. In this talk, for such models, I discuss the fundamental modifications of localization properties in disordered setups due to the presence of a cavity-coupling. As a new feature, I show how dark eigenstates acquire an unexpected “semi-localized” behavior with unusual properties in terms of level statistics and other localization quantifiers [1]. I then discuss how such states may play a crucial role for cavity-modified vibrational dynamics and lead e.g. to a breakdown of Born-Oppenheimer type approaches due to disorder-enhanced entanglement between electro-photonic and vibrational degrees of freedom [2].

[1] T. Botzung, D. Hagenmüller, S. Schütz, J. Dubail, G. Pupillo, and J Schachenmayer, Phys. Rev. B 102, 144202 (2020)

[2] D. Wellnitz, G. Pupillo, and J. Schachenmayer, Commun Phys 5, 120 (2022)