This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the theory of the interaction between atoms and electromagnetic fields, an area which is central to the investigation of the fundamental concepts of quantum mechanics. The first four chapters describe the different forms of the interaction between atoms and radiation fields. The rest of the book deals with how these interactions lead to the formation of dressed states, in the presence of vacuum fluctuations, as well as in the presence of external fields. Also covered are the role of dressed atoms in quantum measurement theory, and the physical interpretation of vacuum radiative effects. Treating a key field on the boundary between quantum optics and quantum electrodynamics, the book will be of great use to graduate students, as well as to established experimentalists and theorists, in either of these areas.
The dynamics of an initially bare pair of two-level atoms at distance R is investigated. The pair is coupled to the vacuum radiation field in the multipolar scheme and in the dipole approximation.The Heisenberg equations of motion for various atomic operators are obtained neglecting terms O(e') and for t smaller than the spontaneous relaxation time. A rigorous proof of causality in the atom-atom interaction is given. Interatomic correlations, however, are shown to develop for
We consider the Casimir-Polder interaction between two atoms, one in the ground state and the other in its excited state. The interaction is time dependent for this system, because of the dynamical self-dressing and the spontaneous decay of the excited atom. We calculate the dynamical Casimir-Polder potential between the two\ud
atoms using an effective Hamiltonian approach. The results obtained and their physical meaning are discussed and compared with previous results based on a time-independent approach, which uses a nonnormalizable dressed state for the excited atom
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