dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaCasimir-Polder forces: A non-perturbative approach
| Authors | Stefan Yoshi Buhmann, Ho Trung Dung, Ludwig Knöll, Dirk-Gunnar Welsch |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0403128 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0403128 |
| DOI | 10.1103/PhysRevA.70.052117 |
| Journal | Physical Review A 70 (5), 052117 (2004) |
Abstract
Within the frame of macroscopic QED in linear, causal media, we study the radiation force of Casimir-Polder type acting on an atom which is positioned near dispersing and absorbing magnetodielectric bodies and initially prepared in an arbitrary electronic state. It is shown that minimal and multipolar coupling lead to essentially the same lowest-order perturbative result for the force acting on an atom in an energy eigenstate. To go beyond perturbation theory, the calculations are based on the exact center-of-mass equation of motion. For a nondriven atom in the weak-coupling regime, the force as a function of time is a superposition of force components that are related to the electronic density-matrix elements at a chosen time. Even the force component associated with the ground state is not derivable from a potential in the ususal way, because of the position dependence of the atomic polarizability. Further, when the atom is initially prepared in a coherent superposition of energy eigenstates, then temporally oscillating force components are observed, which are due to the interaction of the atom with both electric and magnetic fields.
{
"annotation_id": "b5850fa1-73c3-4cc8-bbac-b81c648eb330",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:02:06.282000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:02:06.282000Z",
"file_hash": "847003e2b9879f13253af0c21b1e244873fbd48a3f4d4a0f6ba0b2494ac24571",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "Within the frame of macroscopic QED in linear, causal media, we study the\nradiation force of Casimir-Polder type acting on an atom which is positioned\nnear dispersing and absorbing magnetodielectric bodies and initially prepared\nin an arbitrary electronic state. It is shown that minimal and multipolar\ncoupling lead to essentially the same lowest-order perturbative result for the\nforce acting on an atom in an energy eigenstate. To go beyond perturbation\ntheory, the calculations are based on the exact center-of-mass equation of\nmotion. For a nondriven atom in the weak-coupling regime, the force as a\nfunction of time is a superposition of force components that are related to the\nelectronic density-matrix elements at a chosen time. Even the force component\nassociated with the ground state is not derivable from a potential in the\nususal way, because of the position dependence of the atomic polarizability.\nFurther, when the atom is initially prepared in a coherent superposition of\nenergy eigenstates, then temporally oscillating force components are observed,\nwhich are due to the interaction of the atom with both electric and magnetic\nfields.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0403128",
"authors": [
"Stefan Yoshi Buhmann",
"Ho Trung Dung",
"Ludwig Kn\u00f6ll",
"Dirk-Gunnar Welsch"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph"
],
"doi": "10.1103/PhysRevA.70.052117",
"journal_ref": "Physical Review A 70 (5), 052117 (2004)",
"title": "Casimir-Polder forces: A non-perturbative approach",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0403128"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "186d44b6-eee6-4e36-83da-076de820d31c",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}