Two-Photon Bound States in the Continuum: A No-Go Theorem and Long-Lived Quasi-Bound States

Abstract

Two-photon bound states in the continuum provide a stringent setting in which quantum interference must suppress radiative decay despite photon--photon interactions. Here, we prove a no-go theorem showing that a single nonlinear mode linearly coupled to a noninteracting bosonic continuum cannot support an interaction-active two-photon bound state in the continuum, provided the local spectral density vanishes only at isolated energies. Apart from this regularity condition, the result is independent of the continuum dispersion and the frequency-dependent coupling. Although such an exact bound state is forbidden, long-lived two-photon quasi-bound states remain possible. For a giant Kerr cavity nonlocally coupled to a waveguide, we derive the asymptotic scaling of the two-photon decay rate with the coupling-point separation from weak nonlinearity to the hard-core limit. We further identify a regime in which the two-photon resonance is substantially longer lived than the single-photon excitation. Our work establishes the limits of exact multiphoton confinement while opening a route to engineering long-lived interacting few-photon states.