Canonical quantization of the electromagnetic field interacting with a moving dielectric medium

S. A. R. Horsley

doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.86.023830

Canonical quantization of the electromagnetic field interacting with a moving dielectric medium

S. A. R. Horsley^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Physics and Astronomy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The electromagnetic field is canonically quantized in the presence of a linear, dispersive, and dissipative medium that is in uniform motion. Specifically we calculate the change in the normal modes of the coupled matter-field system and find a Hamiltonian that contains negative-energy normal modes. We interpret these modes as the origin of phenomena such as quantum friction and find that a detector initially in its ground state and coupled to the electromagnetic field in the vicinity of, or within, a uniformly moving medium has a nonzero probability of excitation at T = 0 K.

Original language	English
Article number	023830
Number of pages	12
Journal	Physical Review. A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics
Volume	86
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.86.023830
Publication status	Published - 20 Aug 2012

Keywords

Quantum optics

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10.1103/PhysRevA.86.023830

Cite this

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abstract = "The electromagnetic field is canonically quantized in the presence of a linear, dispersive, and dissipative medium that is in uniform motion. Specifically we calculate the change in the normal modes of the coupled matter-field system and find a Hamiltonian that contains negative-energy normal modes. We interpret these modes as the origin of phenomena such as quantum friction and find that a detector initially in its ground state and coupled to the electromagnetic field in the vicinity of, or within, a uniformly moving medium has a nonzero probability of excitation at T = 0 K.",

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N2 - The electromagnetic field is canonically quantized in the presence of a linear, dispersive, and dissipative medium that is in uniform motion. Specifically we calculate the change in the normal modes of the coupled matter-field system and find a Hamiltonian that contains negative-energy normal modes. We interpret these modes as the origin of phenomena such as quantum friction and find that a detector initially in its ground state and coupled to the electromagnetic field in the vicinity of, or within, a uniformly moving medium has a nonzero probability of excitation at T = 0 K.

AB - The electromagnetic field is canonically quantized in the presence of a linear, dispersive, and dissipative medium that is in uniform motion. Specifically we calculate the change in the normal modes of the coupled matter-field system and find a Hamiltonian that contains negative-energy normal modes. We interpret these modes as the origin of phenomena such as quantum friction and find that a detector initially in its ground state and coupled to the electromagnetic field in the vicinity of, or within, a uniformly moving medium has a nonzero probability of excitation at T = 0 K.

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Canonical quantization of the electromagnetic field interacting with a moving dielectric medium

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EPSRC PostDoctoral Research Fellowship: Postdoctoral Research Fellowship

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Canonical quantization of the electromagnetic field interacting with a moving dielectric medium

Abstract

Keywords

Access to Document

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EPSRC PostDoctoral Research Fellowship: Postdoctoral Research Fellowship

Cite this