Anisotropic and non-additive interactions of a Rydberg impurity in a quantum bath

Abstract

We present a framework for treating anisotropic and non-additive impurity-bath interactions - features that are ubiquitous in realistic quantum impurity problems, but are often neglected in conventional approaches relying on additive, spherically symmetric pseudopotentials. To illustrate this, we focus on a Rydberg atom immersed in a Bose-Einstein condensate, where the internal-state degeneracy of the Rydberg impurity gives rise to configuration-dependent non-additive potentials. With increasing interaction strength, anisotropy-induced partial-wave mixing generates distinct polaron and molaron resonances, allowing for radially and angularly excited bound states to become accessible. This approach captures the anisotropy and non-additivity characteristic of a Rydberg impurity immersed in a quantum bath, and provides broad applicability to a host of quantum impurity problems beyond the Fr\"ohlich paradigm.