Phenomenologically important quantum dissipative processes include black-body friction (an atom absorbs counterpropagating blue-shifted photons and spontaneously emits them in all directions, losing kinetic energy) and non-contact van der Waals frict
ion (in the vicinity of a dielectric surface, the mirror charges of the constituent particles inside the surface experience drag, slowing the atom). The theoretical predictions for these processes are modified upon a rigorous quantum electrodynamic (QED) treatment, which shows that the one-loop correction yields the dominant contribution to the off-resonant, gauge-invariant, imaginary part of the atoms polarizability at room temperature, for typical atom-surface interactions. The tree-level contribution to the polarizability dominates at high temperature.
We aim to optimize the functional form of the compactly supported smooth (CSS) regulator within the functional renormalization group (RG), in the framework of bosonized two-dimensional Quantum Electrodynamics (QED_2) and of the three-dimensional O(N=
1) scalar field theory in the local potential approximation (LPA). The principle of minimal sensitivity (PMS) is used for the optimization of the CSS regulator, recovering all the major types of regulators in appropriate limits. Within the investigated class of functional forms, a thorough investigation of the CSS regulator, optimized with two different normalizations within the PMS method, confirms that the functional form of a regulator first proposed by Litim is optimal within the LPA. However, Litims exact form leads to a kink in the regulator function. A form of the CSS regulator, numerically close to Litims limit while maintaining infinite differentiability, remains compatible with the gradient expansion to all orders. A smooth analytic behaviour of the regulator is ensured by a small, but finite value of the exponential fall-off parameter in the CSS regulator. Consequently, a compactly supported regulator, in a parameter regime close to Litims optimized form, but regularized with an exponential factor, appears to have favorable properties and could be used to address the scheme dependence of the functional renormalization group, at least within the the approximations employed in the studies reported here.
The thermal friction force acting on an atom moving relative to a thermal photon bath is known to be proportional to an integral over the imaginary part of the frequency-dependent atomic (dipole) polarizability. Using a numerical approach, we find th
at blackbody friction on atoms either in dilute environments or in hot ovens is larger than previously thought by orders of magnitude. This enhancement is due to far off-resonant driving of transitions by low-frequency thermal radiation. At typical temperatures, the blackbody radiation maximum lies far below the atomic transition wavelengths. Surprisingly, due to the finite lifetime of atomic levels, which gives rise to Lorentzian line profiles, far off-resonant excitation leads to the dominant contribution to the blackbody friction.
The thermal friction force acting on an atom moving relative to a thermal photon bath has recently been calculated on the basis of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. The thermal fluctuations of the electromagnetic field give rise to a drag force on
an atom provided one allows for dissipation of the field energy via spontaneous emission. The drag force exists if the atomic polarizability has a nonvanishing imaginary part. Here, we explore alternative derivations. The damping of the motion of a simple harmonic oscillator is described by radiative reaction theory (result of Einstein and Hopf), taking into account the known stochastic fluctuations of the electromagnetic field. Describing the excitations of the atom as an ensemble of damped harmonic oscillators, we identify the previously found expressions as generalizations of the Einstein-Hopf result. In addition, we present a simple explanation for blackbody friction in terms of a Doppler shift of the thermal radiation in the inertial frame of the moving atom: The atom absorbs blue-shifted photons from the front and radiates off energy in all directions, thereby losing energy. The original plus the two alternative derivations provide for additional confirmation of an intriguing physical effect, and leave no doubt regarding its existence.
