{"paper":{"title":"Ghost State of Light","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"A single-mode optical cavity sustains a ghost state of light with lifetimes exceeding the photon lifetime by over ten orders of magnitude.","cross_cats":["cond-mat.mes-hall","cond-mat.stat-mech"],"primary_cat":"physics.optics","authors_text":"C. Toebes, Jan Klars, R. M. de Boer, S. R. K. Rodriguez","submitted_at":"2026-05-13T14:19:23Z","abstract_excerpt":"We report the observation of a long-lived non-stationary state of light in a single-mode optical cavity. The observed state is a ghost of a saddle-node bifurcation which creates a bottleneck in phase space. While such ghosts are known to exist, accessing them is challenging because it requires a mechanism that steers the relaxation pathway away from the true attractor and into the bottleneck where the ghost emerges. Here we identify such a mechanism, namely a nonlinear response with memory. Our experimental system leverages this mechanism, enabling us to observe ghost states with lifetimes exc"},"claims":{"count":4,"items":[{"kind":"strongest_claim","text":"We report the observation of a long-lived non-stationary state of light in a single-mode optical cavity... lifetimes exceeding the cavity photon lifetime by more than ten orders of magnitude, even in the presence of strong fluctuations.","source":"verdict.strongest_claim","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C1","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"weakest_assumption","text":"That the observed plateau in cavity transmission relaxation is produced by the ghost of the saddle-node bifurcation, accessed specifically because the nonlinear response possesses memory that steers trajectories into the bottleneck.","source":"verdict.weakest_assumption","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C2","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"one_line_summary","text":"Experimental observation of ghost states from saddle-node bifurcations in an optical cavity, with lifetimes exceeding the photon lifetime by over ten orders of magnitude via nonlinear response with memory.","source":"verdict.one_line_summary","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C3","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"headline","text":"A single-mode optical cavity sustains a ghost state of light with lifetimes exceeding the photon lifetime by over ten orders of magnitude.","source":"verdict.pith_extraction.headline","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C4","attestation":"unclaimed"}],"snapshot_sha256":"5cbea0a57bc836699fb6271f262c0f9a490c03cf1e9d2abe33d8949b07ea58b3"},"source":{"id":"2605.13584","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":"90f88b97-191a-4996-b4a7-c6a1fe9aeae2","model_set":{"reader":"grok-4.3"},"created_at":"2026-05-14T18:57:41.662874Z","strongest_claim":"We report the observation of a long-lived non-stationary state of light in a single-mode optical cavity... lifetimes exceeding the cavity photon lifetime by more than ten orders of magnitude, even in the presence of strong fluctuations.","one_line_summary":"Experimental observation of ghost states from saddle-node bifurcations in an optical cavity, with lifetimes exceeding the photon lifetime by over ten orders of magnitude via nonlinear response with memory.","pipeline_version":"pith-pipeline@v0.9.0","weakest_assumption":"That the observed plateau in cavity transmission relaxation is produced by the ghost of the saddle-node bifurcation, accessed specifically because the nonlinear response possesses memory that steers trajectories into the bottleneck.","pith_extraction_headline":"A single-mode optical cavity sustains a ghost state of light with lifetimes exceeding the photon lifetime by over ten orders of magnitude."},"references":{"count":65,"sample":[{"doi":"","year":2018,"title":"Goldenfeld,Lectures on phase transitions and the renormalization group(CRC Press, 2018)","work_id":"b4ada40e-ad80-4f65-a656-cc8062e5304d","ref_index":1,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"","year":2005,"title":"W. H. Zurek, U. Dorner, and P. Zoller, Dynamics of a quantum phase transition, Phys. Rev. Lett.95, 105701 (2005)","work_id":"8476b313-9a4d-448b-bed3-51a9e399cb5d","ref_index":2,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"","year":2005,"title":"Damski, The simplest quantum model supporting the kibble-zurek mechanism of topological defect produc- tion: Landau-zener transitions from a new perspective, Phys","work_id":"5cf1958c-8072-40d5-84f2-9b34383827e5","ref_index":3,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"","year":2010,"title":"Dziarmaga, Dynamics of a quantum phase transition and relaxation to a steady state, Adv","work_id":"40d88019-1e2c-47d5-929b-faa5ff1c45de","ref_index":4,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"","year":2015,"title":"N. Navon, A. L. Gaunt, R. P. Smith, and Z. Hadzibabic, Critical dynamics of spontaneous symmetry breaking in a homogeneous bose gas, Science347, 167 (2015)","work_id":"d072b797-67e7-4114-82e7-84536aaae51e","ref_index":5,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false}],"resolved_work":65,"snapshot_sha256":"d5e94583b23becdd29b95432c80cfddc8e6782c5b20be9fb7f5e0a0ace0892b9","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":1,"snapshot_sha256":"6b262944dc49209e6cd93c2de7f02de7c919c928ce0e139207ae199886f0dd79"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}