Fluctuations of the Casimir-Polder force between an atom and a conducting wall

Abstract

We consider the quantum fluctuations of the Casimir-Polder force between a neutral atom and a perfectly conducting wall in the ground state of the system. In order to obtain the atom-wall force fluctuation we first define an operator directly associated to the force experienced by the atom considered as a polarizable body in an electromagnetic field, and we use a time-averaged force operator in order to avoid ultraviolet divergences appearing in the fluctuation of the force. This time-averaged force operator takes into account that any measurement involves a finite time. We also calculate the Casimir-Polder force fluctuation for an atom between two conducting walls. Experimental observability of these Casimir-Polder force fluctuations is also discussed, as well as the dependence of the relative force fluctuation on the duration of the measurement.

6 pages

References in corpus (8)

• Measurement of the Temperature Dependence of the Casimir-Polder Force
• Measurement of the Casimir-Polder force through center-of-mass oscillations of a Bose-Einstein condensate
• Experimental Observation of Quantum Reflection in the High Energy Limit
• Dynamical Casimir-Polder energy between an excited and a ground-state atom
• Field fluctuations near a conducting plate and Casimir-Polder forces in the presence of boundary conditions
• Vacuum fluctuations and moving atoms/detectors: From Casimir-Polder to Unruh effect
• Moving Atom-Field Interaction: Correction to Casimir-Polder Effect from Coherent Back-action
• Casimir-Polder force density between an atom and a conducting wall

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Entanglement harvesting in the presence of a reflecting boundary
• Fluctuations of the Casimir-like force between two membrane inclusions
• Stochastic dynamics for a single vibrational mode in molecular junctions
• Casimir-Polder forces, boundary conditions and fluctuations
• Dynamical Casimir-Polder interaction between an atom and surface plasmons
• On the fluctuation of thermal van der Waals forces due to dipole fluctuations
• Are multiple reflecting boundaries capable of enhancing entanglement harvesting?
• Fluctuations of radiative heat exchange between two bodies
• Casimir-Polder force fluctuations as spatial probes of dissipation in metals
• Fluctuations of the energy density and intensity for arbitrary objects in an arbitrary environment