No Arabic abstract
An atom moving in a vacuum at constant velocity and parallel to a surface experiences a frictional force induced by the dissipative interaction with the quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field. We show that the combination of nonequilibrium dynamics, anomalous Doppler effect and spin-momentum locking of light mediates an intriguing interplay between the atoms translational and rotational motion. In turn, this deeply affects the drag force in a way that is reminiscent of classical rolling friction. Our fully non-Markovian and nonequilibrium description reveals counterintuitive features characterizing the atoms velocity-dependent rotational dynamics. These results prompt interesting directions for tuning the interaction and for investigating nonequilibrium dynamics as well as the properties of confined light.
We investigate the influence of spatial dispersion on atom-surface quantum friction. We show that for atom-surface separations shorter than the carriers mean free path within the material, the frictional force can be several orders of magnitude larger than that predicted by local optics. In addition, when taking into account spatial dispersion effects, we show that the commonly used local thermal equilibrium approximation underestimates by approximately 95% the drag force, obtained by employing the recently reported nonequilibrium fluctuation-dissipation relation for quantum friction. Unlike the treatment based on local optics, spatial dispersion in conjunction with corrections to local thermal equilibrium not only change the magnitude but also the distance scaling of quantum friction.
The structure and motion of carbon and h-BN nanotubes (NTs) deposited on graphene is inquired theoretically by simulations based on state-of-the-art interatomic force fields. Results show that any typical cylinder-over-surface approximation is essentially inaccurate. NTs tend to flatten at the interface with the substrate and upon driving they can either roll or slide depending on their size and on their relative orientation with the substrate. In the epitaxially aligned orientation we find that rolling is always the main mechanism of motion, producing a kinetic friction linearly growing with the number of walls, in turn causing an unprecedented supra-linear scaling with the contact area. A 30 degrees misalignment raises superlubric effects, making sliding favorable against rolling. The resulting rolling-to-sliding transition in misaligned NTs is explained in terms of the faceting appearing in large multi-wall tubes, which is responsible for the increased rotational stiffness. Modifying the geometrical conditions provides an additional means of drastically tailoring the frictional properties in this unique tribological system.
The Casimir forces between two plates moving parallel to each other are found by calculating the vacuum electromagnetic stress tensor. The perpendicular force between the plates is modified by the motion but there is no lateral force on the plates. Electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations do not therefore give rise to quantum friction in this case, contrary to previous assertions. The result shows that the Casimir-Polder force on a particle moving at constant speed parallel to a plate also has no lateral component.
We present a formula for the spectroscopically accessible level shifts and decay rates of an atom moving at an arbitrary angle relative to a surface. Our Markov formulation leads to an intuitive analytic description whereby the shifts and rates are obtained from the coefficients of the Heisenberg equation of motion for the atomic flip operators but with complex Doppler-shifted (velocity-dependent) transition frequencies. Our results conclusively demonstrate that for the limiting case of parallel motion the shifts and rates are quadratic or higher in the atomic velocity. We show that a stronger, linear velocity dependence is exhibited by the rates and shifts for perpendicular motion, thus opening the prospect of experimentally probing the Markovian approach to the phenomenon of quantum friction.
Thermodynamic principles are often deceptively simple and yet surprisingly powerful. We show how a simple rule, such as the net flow of energy in and out of a moving atom under nonequilibrium steady state condition, can expose the shortcomings of many popular theories of quantum friction. Our thermodynamic approach provides a conceptual framework in guiding atom-optical experiments, thereby highlighting the importance of fluctuation-dissipation relations and long-time correlations between subsystems. Our results introduce consistency conditions for (numerical) models of nonequilibrium dynamics of open quantum systems.