Microscopic Quantum Friction
Abstract
We report on a microscopic theory of quantum friction. Our approach investigates the interplay between the dispersive response and the relative center-of-mass motion of two ground-state atoms. This coupling yields a quantum force, which can be expressed as a power series in the velocity. The significance of each contribution depends on its order parity: while even-order terms are reversible, odd-order terms are irreversible and only survive in the presence of an internal dissipation mechanism. In addition, we obtain general, model-independent properties for the work performed by these contributions for arbitrary scattering trajectories. These results enable an unambiguous identification of odd-parity terms with microscopic quantum friction. At room temperature, the dominant microscopic quantum friction is of first order in the velocity and presents a strong quantum character. Our microscopic theory reveals that several properties of quantum friction obtained in specific settings -- such as the cubic dependence on velocity at zero temperature -- are indeed universal features already present at the atomic scale.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2601.13265,
title = {Microscopic Quantum Friction},
author = {Pedro H. Pereira and F. Impens and C. Farina and P. A. Maia Neto and R. de Melo e Souza},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.13265},
year = {2026}
}