Virtual transitions in an atom-mirror system in the presence of two scalar photons

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the simultaneous emission of two scalar photons affects the virtual transition probabilities in an accelerating atom-mirror system, revealing that dual photon emission breaks previously observed equivalences.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the emission of two photons alters the transition probability symmetry seen in single photon cases, providing new insights into atom-mirror quantum interactions.

Findings

Dual photon emission breaks the equivalence of transition probabilities.

The probability of such transitions is approximately 1%.

Single photon and dual photon emissions exhibit different transition behaviors.

Abstract

We examine the virtual transition of an atom-mirror system with the simultaneous emission of two scalar photons, where the atom and the mirror admit a relative acceleration between them. For the single photon emission, literature (Phys. Rev. Lett. 121 (2018) 071301) dictates that the transition probabilities of two individual systems, such as an atom accelerating with respect to the mirror and its reverse, turn out to be equivalent under the exchange of the frequencies of atom and the field. Addressing the observational merit of such excitation process, a detectable probability ($P \sim 10^{-2}$) is also reported in the above literature. In the present manuscript our finding dictates that the simultaneous emission of dual photon instead of one, destroys the equivalence between the transition probabilities as reported in the above literature.