English

Directionality emergence and localization in a quantum random Lorentz gas

Quantum Physics 2026-03-16 v1

Abstract

The propagation of a spherical wave through a two-dimensional random Lorentz gas composed of small fixed scatterers is studied. Inspired by the Mott problem (how an initially isotropic quantum wave can give rise to a single particle-like track), we investigate, on a schematic model, whether such a directional behavior can emerge purely from the multiscattering process, without any explicit measurement or decoherence mechanism. Using the Foldy-Lax formalism, we derive the far-field angular behavior of the wavefunction, and introduce a directionality vector to quantify its anisotropy and identify its preferred direction. Numerical simulations reveal the existence of a strongly directional regime within a specific wavenumber range, which emerges from multiscattering with more than 100100 scatterers and which can be related to Anderson localization.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.12432,
  title  = {Directionality emergence and localization in a quantum random Lorentz gas},
  author = {Baptiste Lorent and Jean-Marc Sparenberg and David Gaspard},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.12432},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

19 pages, 5 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T11:17:34.905Z