2016/10/31 by Matthias Sonnleitner, Nils Trautmann, Stephen M. Barnett · 38 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Atom (system on chip) #Atomic physics #Classical mechanics #Excited state #Experimental and Theoretical Physics Studies #Momentum (technical analysis) #Optics #Physics #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum and Classical Electrodynamics #Sight #physics.atom-ph #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.118.053601
published in Physical Review Letters 118(5), 053601 (American Physical Society)
arxiv created 2017/01/04 · openalex publication_date 2017/02/03 · arxiv updated 2017/02/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We show how a simple calculation leads to the surprising result that an excited two-level atom moving through a vacuum sees a tiny friction force of first order in v/c. At first sight this seems to be in obvious contradiction to other calculations showing that the interaction with the vacuum does not change the velocity of an atom. It is even more surprising that this change in the atom's momentum turns out to be a necessary result of energy and momentum conservation in special relativity.