Resonance interaction due to quantum coherence

Abstract

The interaction energy between two atoms is crucially dependent on the quantum state of the two-atom system. In this paper, it is demonstrated that a steady resonance interaction energy between two atoms exists when the atoms are in a certain type of coherent superposition of single-excitation states. The interaction is tree-level classical in the sense of the Feynman diagrams. A quantity called quantum classicality is defined in the present paper, whose nonzero-ness ensures the existence of this interaction. The dependence of the interatomic interaction on the quantum nature of the state of the two-atom system may potentially be tested with Rydberg atoms.

6 pages, 0 figure, published version

References in corpus (5)

• Local optical control of the resonant dipole-dipole interaction between Rydberg atoms
• Casimir-Polder interaction between an excited atom and a gas dielectric medium
• Dispersion Interactions between Neutral Atoms and the Quantum Electrodynamical Vacuum
• Long-Range Tails in van der Waals Interactions of Excited-State and Ground-State Atoms
• Interatomic interaction of two ground-state atoms in vacuum: contributions of vacuum fluctuations and radiation reaction