Dynamical Casimir-Polder force on a partially dressed atom near a conducting wall

Riccardo Messina (1, 2) , Ruggero Vasile (3) , Roberto Passante (4)

1 SYRTE - Systèmes de Référence Temps Espace
2 Théorie et métrologie
3 Turku Centre for Quantum Physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Turku
4 Università degli studi di Palermo - University of Palermo

We study the time evolution of the Casimir-Polder force acting on a neutral atom in front of a perfectly conducting plate, when the system starts its unitary evolution from a partially dressed state. We solve the Heisenberg equations for both atomic and field quantum operators, exploiting a series expansion with respect to the electric charge and an iterative technique. After discussing the behavior of the time-dependent force on an initially partially dressed atom, we analyze a possible experimental scheme to prepare the partially dressed state and the observability of this new dynamical effect.

Domaines: Astrophysique [astro-ph]

Riccardo Messina, Ruggero Vasile, Roberto Passante. Dynamical Casimir-Polder force on a partially dressed atom near a conducting wall. Physical Review A, 2010, 82, pp.62501. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevA.82.062501⟩. ⟨hal-03786633⟩