Motion induced excitation and electromagnetic radiation from an atom facing a thin mirror

CESAR D. FOSCO; FERNANDO C LOMBARDO; FRANCISCO D MAZZITELLI

PHYSICAL REVIEW D - PARTICLE AND FILDS

Americal Physical Society

Lugar: New York; Año: 2022 vol. 106 p. 650051 - 6500511

0556-2821

We evaluate the probability of (de)excitation and photon emission from a neutral, moving, nonrelativisticatom, coupled to the quantum electromagnetic field and in the presence of a thin, perfectly conductingplane (“mirror”). These results extend, to a more realistic model, the ones we had presented for a scalarmodel, where the would-be electron was described by a scalar variable, coupled to an (also scalar) vacuumfield. The latter was subjected to either Dirichlet or Neumann conditions on a plane. In our evaluation of thespontaneous emission rate produced when the accelerated atom is initially in an excited state, we payattention to its comparison with the somewhat opposite situation, namely, an atom at rest facing a movingmirror.