Non-Markovian evolution of photonic quantum states in atmospheric turbulence

Abstract

The evolution of the spatial degrees of freedom of a photon propagating through atmospheric turbulence is treated as a non-Markovian process. Here, we derive and solve the evolution equation for this process. The turbulent medium is modeled by a sequence of multiple phase screens for general turbulence conditions. The non-Markovian perspective leads to a second-order differential equation with respect to the propagation distance. The solution for this differential equation is obtained with the aid of a perturbative analysis, assuming the turbulence is relatively weak. We also provide another solution for more general turbulence strength, but where we introduced a simplification to the differential equation.