The exchange of off-resonant propagating photons between distant quantum emitters induces coherent interactions among them. The range of such interactions, and whether they are accompanied by dissipation, depends on the photonic energy dispersion, its dimensionality, and/or the light-matter couplings. We characterize the limits of photon-mediated interactions for the case of generic one-dimensional photonic baths under the typical assumptions, i.e., finite range hoppings for the photonic bath plus local and rotating-wave light-matter couplings. In that case, we show how, irrespective of the system's parameter, the coherent photon-mediated interactions can always be written as a finite sum of exponentials and thus cannot display a power-law asymptotic scaling. As an outlook, we show how by relaxing some of these conditions, e.g., going beyond local light-matter couplings (e.g., giant atoms) or with longer-range photon hopping models, power-law interactions can be obtained within certain distance windows or even in the asymptotic regime for the latter case.

• Received 23 March 2020
• Accepted 15 June 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.102.013709