Search results for "interaction [electron p]"
showing 10 items of 282 documents
Dynamical Casimir-Polder interaction between an atom and surface plasmons
2013
We investigate the time-dependent Casimir-Polder potential of a polarizable two-level atom placed near a surface of arbitrary material, after a sudden change in the parameters of the system. Different initial conditions are taken into account. For an initially bare ground-state atom, the time-dependent Casimir-Polder energy reveals how the atom is "being dressed" by virtual, matter-assisted photons. We also study the transient behavior of the Casimir-Polder interaction between the atom and the surface starting from a partially dressed state, after an externally induced change in the atomic level structure or transition dipoles. The Heisenberg equations are solved through an iterative techni…
Dynamics of a two-state system through a real level crossing
2015
The dynamics of a two-state system whose energies undergo a real crossing at some instant of time is studied. At this instant, both the coupling and the detuning vanish simultaneously, which leads to an exact degeneracy of the eigenenergies of the system. It is found that the dynamics of the system is primarily determined by the manner in which the degeneracy occurs. This interesting behavior is reminiscent of a symmetry breaking process, since the totally symmetric situation occurring at the crossing is significantly altered by infinitesimal quantities, which remove the degeneracy, with very important dynamical implications from there on. A very simple analytical formula is derived, which …
A multispacecraft analysis of a small-scale transient entrained by solar wind streams
2009
The images taken by the Heliospheric Imagers (HIs), part of the SECCHI imaging package onboard the pair of STEREO spacecraft, provide information on the radial and latitudinal evolution of the plasma compressed inside corotating interaction regions (CIRs). A plasma density wave imaged by the HI instrument onboard STEREO-B was found to propagate towards STEREO-A, enabling a comparison between simultaneous remote-sensing and in situ observations of its structure to be performed. In situ measurements made by STEREO-A show that the plasma density wave is associated with the passage of a CIR. The magnetic field compressed after the CIR stream interface (SI) is found to have a planar distribution…
Casimir-Polder interaction between an accelerated two-level system and an infinite plate
2007
We investigate the Casimir-Polder interaction energy between a uniformly accelerated two-level system and an infinite plate with Dirichlet boundary conditions. Our model is a two-level atom interacting with a massless scalar field, with a uniform acceleration in a direction parallel to the plate. We consider the contributions of vacuum fluctuations and of the radiation reaction field to the atom-wall Casimir-Polder interaction, and we discuss their dependence on the acceleration of the atom. We show that, as a consequence of the noninertial motion of the two-level atom, a thermal term is present in the vacuum fluctuation contribution to the Casimir-Polder interaction. Finally we discuss the…
The spiked harmonic oscillatorV(r)=r 2+λr −4 as a challenge to perturbation theory
1991
The standard weak- and strong-coupling perturbation series are interpreted as extreme special cases of expansions obtainable within the framework of Rayleigh-Schroedinger perturbation theory with non-diagonal propagators and unspecified zero-order energies. The formalism of the latter type is then tested by our strongly singular example. It proves suitable for applications in the domain of virtually arbitrary couplings. A few related technicalities and especially the quadruple problem of convergence are also discussed.
Short-range fundamental forces
2011
Abstract We consider theoretical motivations to search for extra short-range fundamental forces as well as experiments constraining their parameters. The forces could be of two types: 1) spin-independent forces; 2) spin-dependent axion-like forces. Different experimental techniques are sensitive in respective ranges of characteristic distances. The techniques include measurements of gravity at short distances, searches for extra interactions on top of the Casimir force, precision atomic and neutron experiments. We focus on neutron constraints, thus the range of characteristic distances considered here corresponds to the range accessible for neutron experiments.
van der Waals Interaction Energy Between Two Atoms Moving With Uniform Acceleration
2013
We consider the interatomic van der Waals interaction energy between two neutral ground-state atoms moving in the vacuum space with the same uniform acceleration. We assume the acceleration orthogonal to their separation, so that their mutual distance remains constant. Using a model for the van der Waals dispersion interaction based on the interaction between the instantaneous atomic dipole moments, which are induced and correlated by the zero-point field fluctuations, we evaluate the interaction energy between the two accelerating atoms in terms of quantities expressed in the laboratory reference frame. We find that the dependence of the van der Waals interaction between the atoms from the…
Rotational excitation of mono- and doubly-deuterated water by hydrogen molecules
2011
Rate coefficients for rotational transitions in HDO and D2O induced by H2 collisions below 300 K are presented. Calculations have been performed at the close-coupling and coupledstates levels with the deuterated variants of the H2O–H2 interaction potential of Valiron et al. The HDO–H2 and D2O–H2 rate coefficients are compared to the corresponding rate coefficients for HDO–He and H2O–H2, respectively. Significant differences are observed. In particular the new HDO rate coefficients are found to be significantly larger (by up to three orders of magnitude) than the corresponding HDO–He rate coefficients. The impact of the new HDO rate coefficients is examined with the help of non-LTE radiative…
A Demonstrator for a new Axial PET Concept
2008
In PET imaging, improving sensitivity while maintaining very good spatial resolution is crucial. To achieve this goal, we propose a novel concept of PET scanner, with axially arranged crystals, providing a high sensitivity and a 3D reconstruction of the gamma interaction point. The trans-axial coordinate is given by the crystal hit, while the z coordinate is reconstructed by the weighted distribution of light escaping the crystal and entering into an array of Wave Length Shifting (WLS) strips interleaving the crystal layers. This novel configuration allows full identification of Compton interactions in the crystals that can be included in image reconstruction thus enhancing the sensitivity.…
The LHCf detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider
2008
LHCf is an experiment dedicated to the measurement of neutral particles emitted in the very forward region of LHC collisions. The physics goal is to provide data for calibrating the hadron interaction models that are used in the study of Extremely High-Energy Cosmic-Rays. This is possible since the laboratory equivalent collision energy of LHC is 10(17) eV. Two LHCf detectors, consisting of imaging calorimeters made of tungsten plates, plastic scintillator and position sensitive sensors, are installed at zero degree collision angle +/- 140m from an interaction point (IP). Although the lateral dimensions of these calorimeters are very compact, ranging from 20 mm x 20 mm to 40 mm x 40 mm, the…