One-Loop Dominance in the Imaginary Part of the Polarizability: Application to Blackbody and Non-Contact van der Waals Friction

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that one-loop quantum electrodynamic corrections dominate the imaginary part of atomic polarizability in blackbody and van der Waals friction at room temperature, refining theoretical predictions for these dissipative processes.

Contribution

It establishes that one-loop corrections are the leading contribution to the imaginary part of polarizability in typical atom-surface interactions at room temperature.

Findings

One-loop correction dominates off-resonant polarizability.

Tree-level contribution dominates at high temperature.

Refines understanding of quantum dissipative processes.

Abstract

Phenomenologically important quantum dissipative processes include black-body friction (an atom absorbs counterpropagating blue-shifted photons and spontaneously emits them in all directions, losing kinetic energy) and non-contact van der Waals friction (in the vicinity of a dielectric surface, the mirror charges of the constituent particles inside the surface experience drag, slowing the atom). The theoretical predictions for these processes are modified upon a rigorous quantum electrodynamic (QED) treatment, which shows that the one-loop "correction" yields the dominant contribution to the off-resonant, gauge-invariant, imaginary part of the atom's polarizability at room temperature, for typical atom-surface interactions. The tree-level contribution to the polarizability dominates at high temperature.