Enhanced decoherence for a neutral particle sliding on a metallic surface in vacuum

LUDMILA VIOTTI; FERNANDO C. LOMBARDO; PAULA I. VILLAR

PHYSICAL REVIEW A - ATOMIC, MOLECULAR AND OPTICAL PHYSICS

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

Lugar: New York; Año: 2021 vol. 103

1050-2947

Bodies in relative motion, spatially separated in vacuum, experience a tiny friction force known as quantum friction. This force has eluded experimental detection so far due to its small magnitude and short range. Herein, we give quantitative details so as to track traces of the quantum friction by measuring coherences in the atom. We notice that the environmentally induced decoherence can be decomposed into contributions of different signature: corrections induced by the electromagnetic vacuum in the presence of the dielectric sheet and those induced by the motion of the particle. In this direction, we show that noncontact friction enhances the decoherence of the moving atom. Further, its effect can be enlarged by a thorough selection of the two-level particle and the Drude-Lorentz parameters of the material. In this context, we suggest that measuring decoherence times through velocity dependence of coherences could indirectly demonstrate the existence of quantum friction.