Dynamical Casimir-Polder force between an excited atom and a conducting wall

We consider the dynamical atom-surface Casimir-Polder force in the nonequilibrium configuration of an atom near a perfectly conducting wall, initially prepared in an excited state with the field in its vacuum state. We evaluate the time-dependent Casimir-Polder force on the atom and find that it shows an oscillatory behavior from attractive to repulsive both in time and in space. We also investigate the asymptotic behavior in time of the dynamical force and of related local field quantities, showing that the static value of the force, as obtained by a time-independent approach, is recovered for times much longer than the time scale of the atomic self-dressing but shorter than the atomic decay time. We then discuss the evolution of global quantities such as atomic and field energies and their asymptotic behavior. We also compare our results for the dynamical force on the excited atom with analogous results recently obtained for an initially bare ground-state atom. We show that new relevant features are obtained in the case of an initially excited atom, for example, much larger values of the dynamical force with respect to the static one, allowing for an easier way to single out and observe the dynamical Casimir-Polder effect

Dynamical Casimir-Polder force between an atom and a conducting wall

The time-dependent Casimir-Polder force arising during the time evolution of an initially bare two-level atom, interacting with the radiation field and placed near a perfectly conducting wall, is considered. Initially the electromagnetic field is supposed to be in the vacuum state and the atom in its ground state. The analytical expression of the force as a function of time and atom-wall distance, is evaluated from the the time-dependent atom-field interaction energy. Physical features and limits of validity of the results are discussed in detail.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure