Distortion of the virtual photon cloud due to a static electric field

The structure of the virtual transverse-photon cloud surrounding a ground-state hydrogen atom is considered in the presence of a uniform static electric field, which is capable of polarizing the atom. It is shown that this virtual cloud is distorted with respect to the spherically symmetric shape which is obtained when no static electric field is present. The distortion is carried by new components of the cloud, arising from the contributions of magnetic-dipole and electric-quadrupole virtual photons. These new contributions are shown to possess an overall cylindrical symmetry around the direction of the static field, and to be present also at large distances from the atom. The possibility …