Will a Decaying Atom Feel a Friction Force?

作者:Sonnleitner Matthias*; Trautmann Nils; Barnett Stephen M
来源:Physical Review Letters, 2017, 118(5): 053601.
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.053601

摘要

We show how a simple calculation leads to the surprising result that an excited two-level atom moving through a vacuum sees a tiny friction force of first order in v/c. At first sight this seems to be in obvious contradiction to other calculations showing that the interaction with the vacuum does not change the velocity of an atom. It is even more surprising that this change in the atom's momentum turns out to be a necessary result of energy and momentum conservation in special relativity.

  • 出版日期2017-2-3