Casimir-Polder forces, boundary conditions and fluctuations

Abstract

We review different aspects of the atom-atom and atom-wall Casimir-Polder forces. We first discuss the role of a boundary condition on the interatomic Casimir-Polder potential between two ground-state atoms, and give a physically transparent interpretation of the results in terms of vacuum fluctuations and image atomic dipoles. We then discuss the known atom-wall Casimir-Polder force for ground- and excited-state atoms, using a different method which is also suited for extension to time-dependent situations. Finally, we consider the fluctuation of the Casimir-Polder force between a ground-state atom and a conducting wall, and discuss possible observation of this force fluctuation.

5 pages

References in corpus (4)

• Measurement of the Temperature Dependence of the Casimir-Polder Force
• Field fluctuations near a conducting plate and Casimir-Polder forces in the presence of boundary conditions
• Casimir-Polder interaction between an excited atom and a gas dielectric medium
• Enhanced dispersion interaction in confined geometry

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Dynamical Casimir-Polder force between an atom and a conducting wall
• Harmonic oscillator model for the atom-surface Casimir-Polder interaction energy
• Interaction of a Bose-Einstein condensate with a surface: perturbative S-matrix approach
• Energy shift and Casimir-Polder force for an atom out of thermal equilibrium near a dielectric substrate