Electron mass shift in nonthermal systems

Abstract

Abstract.The electron mass is known to be sensitive to local fluctuations in the electromagnetic field, and undergoes a small shift in a thermal field. It was claimed recently that a very large electron mass shift should be expected near the surface of a metal hydride [Eur. Phys. J. C, 46 107 (2006)]. We examine the shift using a formulation based on the Coulomb gauge, which leads to a much smaller shift.The maximization of the electron mass shift under nonequilibrium conditions seems nonetheless to be an interesting problem. We consider a scheme in which a current in a hollow wire produces a large vector potential in the wire center. Fluctuations in an LC circuit with nearly matched loss and gain can produce large current fluctuations; and these can increase the electron mass shift by orders of magnitude over its room temperature value.PACS numbers: 32.90.+a,31.30.J-,31.30.jf Electron mass shift in nonthermal systems 2

Excitation transfer in two two-level systems coupled to an oscillator

“…The accuracy was comparable to that obtained for the spinboson model, and it seems clear that the approach can be applied systematically to higher-spin generalizations of the spin-boson model as well. We also studied a different generalization of the spin-boson model in which a three-level system is coupled to an oscillator [9]. Technical issues associated with the three-level system made the implementation of the rotation much more challenging; however, in the end we obtained good results for the level shifts, and for the level splitting at the anticrossings, as long as the anticrossing occured away from other strong resonances which interfere.…”