Are vacuum fluctuations relevant in absorption dynamics?

TL;DR

This paper investigates whether vacuum fluctuations influence absorption processes, proposing an experimental test to clarify their role and comparing different mechanisms of quantum disentanglement and emission triggering.

Contribution

It introduces a feasible experimental test to determine the relevance of vacuum fluctuations in absorption dynamics, contrasting with previous Casimir-based proposals.

Findings

The proposed test can experimentally distinguish the role of vacuum fluctuations in absorption.

Analysis shows consistency with previous double spontaneous emission results.

Comparison of time scales for vacuum fluctuations and emission triggers.

Abstract

Vacuum fluctuations play a central role in spontaneous emission. Recently, it has been suggested that these fluctuations could also be fundamental in the absorption dynamics, breaking the superposition inherent to the linear quantum evolution. We analyze the consistency of that proposal with previous results in double spontaneous emission. Moreover, for the case of single absorption by two atoms, we present a test based on the time dependence of the subsequent spontaneous emission patterns, which can experimentally settle the question. This test is more viable than the original proposal, built on the Casimir effect. Our approach also allows for the comparison between the time scales of vacuum fluctuations as a disentangling mechanism and an emission trigger.