Quantum friction in the presence of a perfectly conducting plate
Quantum friction in the presence of a perfectly conducting plate
A neutral but polarizable particle at rest near a perfectly conducting plate feels a force normal to the surface of the plate, which tends to pull the particle towards the plate. This is the well-known Casimir-Polder force, which has long been theoretically proposed and experimentally observed. In this paper, we explore the transverse frictional force on an atom moving uniformly parallel to a perfectly conducting plate. Although many theoretical predictions can be found for the quantum friction on a particle moving above an imperfect surface, the extreme situation with a perfectly conducting plate seems to have been largely unaddressed by the theoretical community.We investigate this ideal case as a natural extension of our previous work on quantum vacuum friction, and conclude that there does exist a quantum frictional force on an atom moving above a perfectly conducting plate, which we will abbreviate by PCQF. Like quantum vacuum friction, PCQF arises from the interaction between the particle and the surrounding blackbody radiation. But, the behavior of PCQF differs from the quantum vacuum friction in that the vacuum fields are modified by the perfectly conducting plate. Very interestingly, the distance dependence, the temperature dependence, and even the sign of the frictional force can depend on the polarization state of the atom. For an isotropic atom with a static polarizability, the resultant frictional force is found to be negative definite and therefore remains a true drag. Just above the surface of the plate, the magnitude of the frictional force is twice that of the quantum vacuum friction in the absence of the plate.
062812
Guo, Xin
3f89f94f-15ae-4a6d-962a-4fbfdc099541
Milton, Kimball A.
32b2e838-92a4-4f2d-a33d-ab54ddaf8e08
Kennedy, Gerard
47b61664-2d2d-45fa-a73a-5af7a7c740cd
Pourtolami, Nima
b43c7cb9-06b9-4dde-ba1a-8936230f6d04
14 June 2023
Guo, Xin
3f89f94f-15ae-4a6d-962a-4fbfdc099541
Milton, Kimball A.
32b2e838-92a4-4f2d-a33d-ab54ddaf8e08
Kennedy, Gerard
47b61664-2d2d-45fa-a73a-5af7a7c740cd
Pourtolami, Nima
b43c7cb9-06b9-4dde-ba1a-8936230f6d04
Guo, Xin, Milton, Kimball A., Kennedy, Gerard and Pourtolami, Nima
(2023)
Quantum friction in the presence of a perfectly conducting plate.
Physical Review A, 107 (6), , [062812].
(doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.107.062812).
Abstract
A neutral but polarizable particle at rest near a perfectly conducting plate feels a force normal to the surface of the plate, which tends to pull the particle towards the plate. This is the well-known Casimir-Polder force, which has long been theoretically proposed and experimentally observed. In this paper, we explore the transverse frictional force on an atom moving uniformly parallel to a perfectly conducting plate. Although many theoretical predictions can be found for the quantum friction on a particle moving above an imperfect surface, the extreme situation with a perfectly conducting plate seems to have been largely unaddressed by the theoretical community.We investigate this ideal case as a natural extension of our previous work on quantum vacuum friction, and conclude that there does exist a quantum frictional force on an atom moving above a perfectly conducting plate, which we will abbreviate by PCQF. Like quantum vacuum friction, PCQF arises from the interaction between the particle and the surrounding blackbody radiation. But, the behavior of PCQF differs from the quantum vacuum friction in that the vacuum fields are modified by the perfectly conducting plate. Very interestingly, the distance dependence, the temperature dependence, and even the sign of the frictional force can depend on the polarization state of the atom. For an isotropic atom with a static polarizability, the resultant frictional force is found to be negative definite and therefore remains a true drag. Just above the surface of the plate, the magnitude of the frictional force is twice that of the quantum vacuum friction in the absence of the plate.
Text
qfpc_accepted
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 27 April 2023
Published date: 14 June 2023
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
We thank the U.S. National Science Foundation, Grant No. 2008417, for partial support of this work. We thank Stephen Fulling, Prachi Parashar, Shadi Rezaei, Dylan Michael DelCol, and Venkat Abhignan for many helpful discussions. We thank Matthias Krüger for pointing us to the analogy of the colloid-wall interaction in hydrodynamics. This paper reflects solely the authors' personal opinions and does not represent the opinions of the authors' employers, present and past, in any way.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 American Physical Society.
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 478581
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/478581
ISSN: 2469-9926
PURE UUID: 23fdb748-e8cf-45e7-9d6a-7de37c0599c4
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Date deposited: 05 Jul 2023 17:11
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 02:59
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Author:
Xin Guo
Author:
Kimball A. Milton
Author:
Nima Pourtolami
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