Non-local double-path Casimir phase in atom interferometers

Abstract

We present a quantum open system theory of atom interferometers evolving in the quantized electromagnetic field bounded by an ideal conductor. Our treatment reveals an unprecedented feature of matter-wave propagation, namely the appearance of a non-local double-path phase coherence. Such a non-local phase arises from the coarse-graining over the quantized electromagnetic field and internal atomic degrees of freedom, yielding a non-Hamiltonian evolution of the atomic waves moving in presence of correlated quantum dipole and field fluctuations. We develop a diagrammatic interpretation of this phase, and estimate it for realistic experimental parameters.

5 pages, 1 figure. Final version, published in the Europhysics Letters

References in corpus (4)

• Atom Interferometers
• Decoherence of matter waves by thermal emission of radiation
• Geometric nature of the environment-induced Berry phase and geometric dephasing
• Geometric phases in open systems: an exact model to study how they are corrected by decoherence