dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaCasimir-Polder interaction between an atom and a cavity wall under the influence of real conditions
| Authors | J. F. Babb, G. L. Klimchitskaya, V. M. Mostepanenko |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0405163 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0405163 |
| DOI | 10.1103/PhysRevA.70.042901 |
| Journal | Phys. Rev. A 70, 042901 (2004) |
Abstract
The Casimir-Polder interaction between an atom and a metal wall is investigated under the influence of real conditions including the dynamic polarizability of the atom, finite conductivity of the wall metal and nonzero temperature of the system. Both analytical and numerical results for the free energy and force are obtained over a wide range of the atom-wall distances. Numerical computations are performed for an Au wall and metastable He${}^{\ast}$, Na and Cs atoms. For the He${}^{\ast}$ atom we demonstrate, as an illustration, that at short separations of about the Au plasma wavelength at room temperature the free energy deviates up to 35% and the force up to 57% from the classical Casimir-Polder result. Accordingly, such large deviations should be taken into account in precision experiments on atom-wall interactions. The combined account of different corrections to the Casimir-Polder interaction leads to the conclusion that at short separations the corrections due to the dynamic polarizability of an atom play a more important role than -- and suppress -- the corrections due to the nonideality of the metal wall. By the comparison of the exact atomic polarizabilities with those in the framework of the single oscillator model, it is shown that the obtained asymptotic expressions enable calculation of the free energy and force for the atom-wall interaction under real conditions with a precision of one percent.
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"abstract": "The Casimir-Polder interaction between an atom and a metal wall is\ninvestigated under the influence of real conditions including the dynamic\npolarizability of the atom, finite conductivity of the wall metal and nonzero\ntemperature of the system. Both analytical and numerical results for the free\nenergy and force are obtained over a wide range of the atom-wall distances.\nNumerical computations are performed for an Au wall and metastable\nHe${}^{\\ast}$, Na and Cs atoms. For the He${}^{\\ast}$ atom we demonstrate, as\nan illustration, that at short separations of about the Au plasma wavelength at\nroom temperature the free energy deviates up to 35% and the force up to 57%\nfrom the classical Casimir-Polder result. Accordingly, such large deviations\nshould be taken into account in precision experiments on atom-wall\ninteractions. The combined account of different corrections to the\nCasimir-Polder interaction leads to the conclusion that at short separations\nthe corrections due to the dynamic polarizability of an atom play a more\nimportant role than -- and suppress -- the corrections due to the nonideality\nof the metal wall. By the comparison of the exact atomic polarizabilities with\nthose in the framework of the single oscillator model, it is shown that the\nobtained asymptotic expressions enable calculation of the free energy and force\nfor the atom-wall interaction under real conditions with a precision of one\npercent.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0405163",
"authors": [
"J. F. Babb",
"G. L. Klimchitskaya",
"V. M. Mostepanenko"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph"
],
"doi": "10.1103/PhysRevA.70.042901",
"journal_ref": "Phys. Rev. A 70, 042901 (2004)",
"title": "Casimir-Polder interaction between an atom and a cavity wall under the influence of real conditions",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0405163"
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