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

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

PHYSICAL REVIEW A - ATOMIC, MOLECULAR AND OPTICAL PHYSICS

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

Lugar: New York; Año: 2021 vol. 103 p. 328091 - 3280910

1050-2947

Bodies in relative motion, spatially separated in vacuum, experience a tiny friction force known as quantumfriction. 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. Wenotice 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 inducedby the motion of the particle. In this direction, we show that noncontact friction enhances the decoherence ofthe moving atom. Further, its effect can be enlarged by a thorough selection of the two-level particle and theDrude-Lorentz parameters of the material. In this context, we suggest that measuring decoherence times throughvelocity dependence of coherences could indirectly demonstrate the existence of quantum friction.