Thermal corrections to quantum friction and decoherence: a Closed-Time-Path approach to atom-surface interaction

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

Buenos aires

Workshop; Giambiaggi winter school; 2019

Departamento de fisica, FCEN, UBA

We study the open dynamics of a neutral particle while traveling at constant velocity in front of an imperfect sheet in quantum vacuum. The reduced system of the neutral particle represented by a two-level system is studied thoroughly showing the non-unitary effects induced during its evolution. We show that this model is a good scenario to explore the geometric phase acquired by the two-level system and infer features of the quantum system. We deliberately study the correction to the unitary geometric phase and notice it can be decomposed in different contributions: corrections induced by the presence of the dielectric sheet and by the motion of the particle in quantum vacuum. As the geometric phase accumulates over cycles, the correction to the geometric phase becomes relevant at a relative short timescale, while the system still preserves purity. The corrections to the phase can be used to track traces of quantum friction through the study of the velocity dependence since the solely evidence of this dependence provides an indirect testimony of the existence of a quantum frictional force. By a right choice of the parameters of the model it could be possible to enhance the corrections in a experimentally viable scheme to measure the geometric phase.