Related papers: Decoherence effects of motion-induced radiation
Understanding the interplay between quantum mechanical systems and gravity is a crucial step towards unifying these two fundamental ideas. Recent theoretical developments have explored how global properties of spacetime would cause a…
The quite different behaviors exhibited by microscopic and macroscopic systems with respect to quantum interferences suggest that there may exist a naturally frontier between quantum and classical worlds. The value of the Planck mass…
Whereas the total energy in zero-point fluctuations of the particle physics vacuum gives rise to the cosmological constant problem, differences in the vacuum give rise to real physical phenomena, such as the Casimir effect. Hence we…
We adopt an open quantum system approach to study the effects of the back-reaction from a quantum field onto the dynamics of a moving mirror. We describe the coupling between the mirror and the field by using a microscopic model from which…
The interaction of compact objects with an infinitely extended mirror plane due to quantum fluctuations of a scalar or electromagnetic field that scatters off the objects is studied. The mirror plane is assumed to obey either Dirichlet or…
Source radiation (radiation reaction) and vacuum-field fluctuations can be seen as two inseparable contributions to processes such as spontaneous emission, the Lamb shift, or the Casimir force. Here, we propose how they can be individually…
The motion of a charged particle over a conducting plate is damped by Ohmic resistance to image currents. This interaction between the particle and the plate must also produce decoherence, which can be detected by examining interference…
We analyze the notion of quantum coherence in an interference experiment. We let the phase shifts fluctuate according to a given statistical distribution and introduce a decoherence parameter, defined in terms of a generalized visibility of…
A multi-slit interference experiment, with which-way detectors, in the presence of environment induced decoherence, is theoretically analyzed. The effect of environment is modeled via a coupling to a bath of harmonic oscillators. Through an…
We consider an atom in its ground state undergoing a non-relativistic oscillation in free space. The interaction with the electromagnetic quantum vacuum leads to two effects to leading order in perturbation theory. When the mechanical…
The Casimir effect is a quantum phenomenon rooted in the fact that vacuum fluctuations of quantum fields are affected by the presence of physical objects and boundaries. Since the energy spectrum of the vacuum fluctuations depends on…
Any quantum system interacting with a complex environment undergoes decoherence. Empty space is filled with vacuum energy due to matter fields in their ground state and represents an underlying environment that any quantum particle has to…
We consider a non-spherical neutral particle spinning in free space and interacting with the electromagnetic quantum vacuum. When the rotation axis is orthogonal to the particle symmetry axis, the scattered field develops frequency…
Zero-point fluctuations in quantum fields give rise to observable forces between material bodies, the so-called Casimir forces. In these lectures I present the theory of the Casimir effect, primarily formulated in terms of Green's…
The Casimir effect refers to the existence of a macroscopic force between conducting plates in vacuum due to quantum fluctuations of fields. These forces play an important role, among other things, in the design of nano-scale mechanical…
We study in detail the effect of quantum decoherence in neutrino oscillations. We adopt a phenomenological approach that allows us to parametrize the energy dependence of the decoherence effects resulting from the modification of the…
The existence of irreducible field fluctuations in vacuum is an important prediction of quantum theory. These fluctuations have many observable consequences, like the Casimir effect which is now measured with good accuracy and agreement…
We discuss effects of loss of coherence in low energy quantum systems caused by or related to gravitation, referred to as gravitational decoherence. These effects, resulting from random metric fluctuations, for instance, promise to be…
We study the loss of spatial coherence in the extended wave function of fullerenes due to collisions with background gases. From the gradual suppression of quantum interference with increasing gas pressure we are able to support…
The Casimir effect is investigated in light-cone quantization. It is shown that for spacelike separation of the walls enclosing the system the standard result for the pressure exerted on the walls is obtained. For walls separated in…