Casimir-Polder interaction between an atom and a conducting wall in cosmic string spacetime

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a cosmic string spacetime affects the Casimir-Polder force between an atom and a conducting wall, revealing that the force can be controlled in magnitude and direction by the spacetime geometry.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the Casimir-Polder interaction in cosmic string spacetime, including anisotropic polarizability and force control via spacetime geometry.

Findings

Force can be attractive or repulsive depending on polarizability orientation.

Cosmic string geometry influences the strength and sign of the Casimir-Polder force.

Asymptotic behaviors are characterized at different separation scales.

Abstract

The Casimir-Polder interaction potential is evaluated for a polarizable microparticle and a conducting wall in the geometry of a cosmic string perpendicular to the wall. The general case of the anisotropic polarizability tensor for the microparticle is considered. The corresponding force is a function of the wall-microparticle and cosmic string-microparticle distances. Depending on the orientation of the polarizability tensor principal axes the force can be either attractive or repulsive. The asymptotic behavior of the Casimir-Polder potential is investigated at large and small separations compared to the wavelength of the dominant atomic transitions. We show that the conical defect may be used to control the strength and the sign of the Casimir-Polder force.