Dynamical Casimir-Polder energy between an excited- and a ground-state atom

Rizzuto, Lucia; Passante, Roberto; Persico, F.

doi:10.1103/physreva.70.012107

Cited by 68 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…By an appropriate time-averaging procedure [18] or in the limit of vanishing atomic line widths [19], a third result, for the vdW interaction on the excited atom, was found that oscillates in magnitude and sign. Note that an earlier approach based on time-dependent perturbation theory yields a non-oscillatory result for the force on the ground-state atom that is however valid only for times shorter than the lifetime of the excited state [20]. Similar considerations about timescales hold for the diagrammatic nonequilibrium description used in Ref.…”

Section: Arxiv:150300986v2 [Quant-ph] 23 Feb 2017mentioning

confidence: 76%

van der Waals interactions between excited atoms in generic environments

et al. 2016

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We consider the the van der Waals force involving excited atoms in general environments, constituted by magnetodielectric bodies. We develop a dynamical approach studying the dynamics of the atoms and the field, mutually coupled. When only one atom is excited, our dynamical theory suggests that for large distances the van der Waals force acting on the ground-state atom is monotonic, while the force acting in the excited atom is spatially oscillating. We show how this latter force can be related to the known oscillating Casimir-Polder force on an excited atom near a (ground-state) body. Our force also reveals a population-induced dynamics: for times much larger that the atomic lifetime the atoms will decay to their ground-states leading to the van der Waals interaction between ground-state atoms.

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Section: Arxiv:150300986v2 [Quant-ph] 23 Feb 2017mentioning

confidence: 76%

van der Waals interactions between excited atoms in generic environments

et al. 2016

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“…In this coupling scheme the momentum conjugate to the vector potential is the transverse displacement field, which outside the atoms coincides with the electric field (transverse plus longitudinal) [14]. We evaluate the three-body CP interaction energy from the interaction of one atom with the time-dependent field emitted by the two other atoms; this is a generalization of a method already used in a time-independent situation for three atoms [9] and also in time-dependent cases for the two-body potential [15]. Only terms involving coordinates and polarizabilities of all atoms are relevant for the three-body potential.…”

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confidence: 99%

Nonlocal Properties of Dynamical Three-Body Casimir-Polder Forces

2007

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We consider the three-body Casimir-Polder interaction between three atoms during their dynamical self-dressing. We show that the time-dependent three-body Casimir-Polder interaction energy displays nonlocal features related to quantum properties of the electromagnetic field and to the nonlocality of spatial field correlations. We discuss the measurability of this intriguing phenomenon and its relation with the usual concept of stationary three-body forces.PACS numbers: 12.20. Ds, 42.50.Ct One striking aspect of quantum mechanics is the existence of nonlocal correlations between spatially separated objects [1,2]. This might in principle give rise to nonlocal observable effects, although the possibility of using such correlations for transmitting superluminal signals has been investigated in many different frameworks with negative conclusions [3]. Quantum fields display nonlocal correlations too [4] and it is therefore relevant to investigate if these correlations have observable consequences. In this letter we discuss observable manifestations of nonlocality of quantum electromagnetic fields in dynamical three-body Casimir-Polder forces between three atoms; in the present context they arise from nonlocal spatial correlations of the electric field in the vacuum state during the dynamical self-dressing of the atoms. The physical basis of our work is that Casimir-Polder (CP) long-range interatomic interactions are directly related to the electric field correlations evaluated at the positions of the atoms, both for two-and many-body components [5,6,7,8]. In the case of three atoms, in which we are mainly interested, the CP potential energy is related to the electric field correlation at the position of two atoms, dressed by the third. In the dynamical (i.e. time-dependent) case, for example during the selfdressing or the spontaneous decay of one of the three atoms, spatial field correlations have a nonlocal evolution and we investigate if this has observable consequences in the three-body Casimir-Polder interaction between the three atoms. On the other hand, three-body CasimirPolder forces can be also obtained, from different physical considerations, as the interaction of one atom with the field fluctuations generated by the other two atoms [9]. In a dynamical situation, field fluctuations are expected to propagate causally, and thus the interaction with the third atom is not expected to show nonlocal features.In this paper we compare in detail results from the two approaches outlined above, and show that apparently contradictory conclusions derive from the fact that the two approaches consider two different, albeit related, interaction energies. Also, our results suggest that what is * Electronic address: roberto.passante@fisica.unipa.it usually considered as the three-body energy, as obtained from the energy shift of the system due to the atomfield interaction, needs a careful definition from the point of view of measurement theory. We wish to point out that Casimir forces in non-equilibrium situations have rece...

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“…For previous work in this field, see e.g., [19][20][21][22]. Since we are here working with the UdW model, we can go beyond the usual proximity field approximation.…”

Section: Arxiv:13117619v2 [Quant-ph] 21 Mar 2014mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One small caveat is that this simple model encodes the basic features of the light-matter interaction for atomic transitions only in the absence of the exchange of orbital angular momentum [18]. The model has been used in studies of Casimir-Polder forces involving only one conducting plate [19][20][21][22] and is commonly used in studies of quantum field theory in curved spacetimes and relativistic quantum information [30][31][32][33][34][35], as well as in quantum optics (see, e.g., [36]). However, the model does not contain the analog of a diamagnetic field self-interaction term as in (1).…”

Section: Field-matter Interaction Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Casimir forces on atoms in optical cavities

2014

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Casimir-type forces, such as those between two neutral conducting plates, or between a sphere, atom or molecule and a plate have been widely studied and are becoming of increasing significance, for example, in nanotechnology. A key challenge is to better understand, from a fundamental microscopic approach, why the Casimir force is in some circumstances attractive and in others repulsive. Here, we study the Casimir-Polder forces experienced by small quantum systems such as atoms or molecules in an optical cavity. In order to make the problem more tractable, we work in a 1+1 dimensional setting, we take into account only the ground state and first excited state of the atom and we model the electromagnetic field as a scalar field with Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions. This allows us to determine the conditions for the Casimir force to be attractive or repulsive for individual atoms, namely through the interplay of paramagnetic and diamagnetic vacuum effects. We also study the microscopic-macroscopic transition, finding that as the number of atoms in the cavity is increased, the atoms start to affect the Casimir force exerted on the cavity walls similarly to a dielectric medium.

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Dynamical Casimir-Polder energy between an excited- and a ground-state atom

Cited by 68 publications

References 16 publications

van der Waals interactions between excited atoms in generic environments

van der Waals interactions between excited atoms in generic environments

Nonlocal Properties of Dynamical Three-Body Casimir-Polder Forces

Casimir forces on atoms in optical cavities

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