Competing Soft Modes and Tunable Multicriticality in a Generalized Two-Mode Quantum Rabi Model

Abstract

Multicritical phenomena play a central role in quantum many-body systems, yet their microscopic origin in light--matter platforms remains largely unexplored. Here we investigate a generalized two-mode quantum Rabi model with independently tunable rotating- and counter-rotating-wave couplings. We demonstrate that anisotropy lifts the parent U(1)-symmetric superradiant manifold with a gapless Goldstone-like mode by phase locking the complex superradiant order parameter. This phase-locking mechanism provides the common microscopic origin of the coordinate- and momentum-like soft-mode instabilities, the emergence of symmetry-related two- and four-triple-point multicritical topologies, and the corresponding thermodynamic responses. Within a unified Bogoliubov framework, we further show how the dominant soft mode is redistributed between the two symmetry-related instability channels, thereby determining the multicritical phase structure. The resulting phase boundaries are determined by collective soft-mode softening and coincide exactly with the mean-field instability conditions. We further show that the multicritical topology is directly encoded in the full quantum ground-state energy and its response functions, establishing a unified connection between phase topology, competing collective excitations, and thermodynamic observables. Our results identify competing soft-mode channels as the microscopic origin of tunable multicriticality in strongly coupled light--matter systems.