dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaSpontaneous absorption of an accelerated hydrogen atom near a conducting plane in vacuum
| Authors | Hongwei Yu, Zhiying Zhu |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0608179 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0608179 |
| DOI | 10.1103/PhysRevD.74.044032 |
| Journal | Phys.Rev. D74 (2006) 044032 |
Abstract
We study, in the multipolar coupling scheme, a uniformly accelerated multilevel hydrogen atom in interaction with the quantum electromagnetic field near a conducting boundary and separately calculate the contributions of the vacuum fluctuation and radiation reaction to the rate of change of the mean atomic energy. It is found that the perfect balance between the contributions of vacuum fluctuations and radiation reaction that ensures the stability of ground-state atoms is disturbed, making spontaneous transition of ground-state atoms to excited states possible in vacuum with a conducting boundary. The boundary-induced contribution is effectively a nonthermal correction, which enhances or weakens the nonthermal effect already present in the unbounded case, thus possibly making the effect easier to observe. An interesting feature worth being noted is that the nonthermal corrections may vanish for atoms on some particular trajectories.
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"abstract": "We study, in the multipolar coupling scheme, a uniformly accelerated\nmultilevel hydrogen atom in interaction with the quantum electromagnetic field\nnear a conducting boundary and separately calculate the contributions of the\nvacuum fluctuation and radiation reaction to the rate of change of the mean\natomic energy. It is found that the perfect balance between the contributions\nof vacuum fluctuations and radiation reaction that ensures the stability of\nground-state atoms is disturbed, making spontaneous transition of ground-state\natoms to excited states possible in vacuum with a conducting boundary. The\nboundary-induced contribution is effectively a nonthermal correction, which\nenhances or weakens the nonthermal effect already present in the unbounded\ncase, thus possibly making the effect easier to observe. An interesting feature\nworth being noted is that the nonthermal corrections may vanish for atoms on\nsome particular trajectories.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0608179",
"authors": [
"Hongwei Yu",
"Zhiying Zhu"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph",
"gr-qc",
"hep-th"
],
"doi": "10.1103/PhysRevD.74.044032",
"journal_ref": "Phys.Rev. D74 (2006) 044032",
"title": "Spontaneous absorption of an accelerated hydrogen atom near a conducting plane in vacuum",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0608179"
},
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