Enhanced decoherence for a neutral particle sliding on a metallic surface in vacuum

TL;DR

This paper investigates how quantum friction, a tiny non-contact force experienced by a moving atom near a metallic surface, can be detected through enhanced decoherence effects, offering a potential experimental approach.

Contribution

It provides a quantitative analysis of decoherence contributions from quantum friction and proposes measuring decoherence times to indirectly detect quantum friction effects.

Findings

Quantum friction enhances decoherence of a moving atom near a metallic surface.

Decoherence effects can be amplified by selecting specific atomic and material parameters.

Measuring velocity-dependent decoherence times could serve as an indirect detection method for quantum friction.

Abstract

Bodies in relative motion, spatially separated in vacuum, experience a tiny friction force known as quantum friction. This force has eluded experimental detection so far due to its small magnitude and short range. Herein, we give quantitative details so as to track traces of the quantum friction by measuring coherences in the atom. We notice that the environmentally induced decoherence can be decomposed into contributions of different signature: corrections induced by the electromagnetic vacuum in presence of the dielectric sheet and those induced by the motion of the particle. In this direction, we show that non-contact friction enhances the decoherence of the moving atom. Further, its effect can be enlarged by a thorough selection of the two-level particle and the Drude-Lorentz parameters of the material. In this context, we suggest that measuring decoherence times through velocity dependence of coherences could indirectly demonstrate the existence of quantum friction.