Eberlein, C.C. and Robaschik, D. (2004) Inadequacy of Perfect-Reflector Models in Cavity QED for Systems with Low-Frequency Excitations. Physical Review Letters, 92 (23). ISSN 0031-9007

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Abstract

It is shown that the model of perfectly reflecting boundaries widely employed in cavity QED is unsuitable for systems that have long-wavelength excitations. A prime example is a free charged particle near a reflecting wall. Modeling the wall as perfectly reflecting from the outset ignores evanescent waves that couple to the particle through virtual excitations at low energies, which can lead to errors in order of magnitude and even sign. The example of a free electron near an imperfectly reflecting wall characterized by a constant frequency-independent refractive index n is investigated in detail by determining its energy shift relative to an electron in vacuum through both nonrelativistic and relativistic calculations.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Perfect-Reflector Cavity QED Low frequency
Schools and Departments:	School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences > Physics and Astronomy
Subjects:	Q Science > QC Physics
Depositing User:	Gemma Farrell
Date Deposited:	16 Nov 2007
Last Modified:	12 Mar 2017 08:00
URI:	http://srodev.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/1606
Google Scholar:	9 Citations

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