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Open Quantum Systems Decoherence
Will a decaying atom feel a friction force?
arXiv
Authors: Matthias Sonnleitner, Nils Trautmann, Stephen M. Barnett
Year
2016
Paper ID
43081
Status
Preprint
Abstract Read
~2 min
Abstract Words
85
Citations
N/A
Abstract
We show how a simple calculation leads to the surprising result that an excited two-level atom moving through vacuum sees a tiny friction force of first order in v/c. At first sight this seems to be in obvious contradiction to other calculations showing that the interaction with the vacuum does not change the velocity of an atom. It is yet more surprising that this change in the atom's momentum turns out to be a necessary result of energy and momentum conservation in special relativity.
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- This paper contributes to the Open Quantum Systems & Decoherence research area in the Quantum Articles archive.
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- We show how a simple calculation leads to the surprising result that an excited two-level atom moving through vacuum sees a tiny friction force of first order in v/c.
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