Dimerization of Many-Body Subradiant States in Waveguide Quantum Electrodynamics

We theoretically study subradiant states in an array of atoms coupled to photons propagating in a one-dimensional waveguide focusing on the strongly interacting many-body regime with large excitation fill factor f. We introduce a generalized many-body entropy of entanglement based on exact numerical diagonalization followed by a high-order singular value decomposition. This approach has allowed us to visualize and understand the structure of a many-body quantum state. We reveal the breakdown of fermionized subradiant states with increase of f with the emergence of short-ranged dimerized antiferromagnetic correlations at the critical point f = 1/2 and the complete disappearance of subradiant states at f > 1/2.