Influence on electron coherence from quantum electromagnetic fields in the presence of conducting plates

TL;DR

This paper investigates how conducting plates influence electron coherence through modified electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations, revealing anisotropic effects and potential experimental implications.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of boundary-induced vacuum fluctuation effects on electron coherence using the influence functional method.

Findings

Coherence is enhanced parallel to the plate and reduced perpendicular to it.

Presence of a second plate amplifies the boundary effects.

Finite conductivity modifies the coherence effects.

Abstract

The influence of electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations in the presence of the perfectly conducting plate on electrons is studied with an interference experiment. The evolution of the reduced density matrix of the electron is derived by the method of influence functional. We find that the plate boundary anisotropically modifies vacuum fluctuations that in turn affect the electron coherence. The path plane of the interference is chosen either parallel or normal to the plate. In the vicinity of the plate, we show that the coherence between electrons due to the boundary is enhanced in the parallel configuration, but reduced in the normal case. The presence of the second parallel plate is found to boost these effects. The potential relation between the amplitude change and phase shift of interference fringes is pointed out. The finite conductivity effect on electron coherence is discussed.