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Łach G, DeKieviet M, Jentschura UD. Enhancement of blackbody friction due to the finite lifetime of atomic levels. Phys Rev Lett. 2012;108(4):043005doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.043005.
Łach, G., DeKieviet, M., & Jentschura, U. D. (2012). Enhancement of blackbody friction due to the finite lifetime of atomic levels. Physical review letters, 108(4), 043005. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.043005
Łach, G, et al. "Enhancement of blackbody friction due to the finite lifetime of atomic levels." Physical review letters vol. 108,4 (2012): 043005. doi: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.043005
Łach G, DeKieviet M, Jentschura UD. Enhancement of blackbody friction due to the finite lifetime of atomic levels. Phys Rev Lett. 2012 Jan 27;108(4):043005. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.043005. Epub 2012 Jan 24. PMID: 22400837.
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Phys Rev Lett. 2012 Jan 27;108(4):043005. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.043005. Epub 2012 Jan 24.

Enhancement of blackbody friction due to the finite lifetime of atomic levels.

Physical review letters

G Łach, M DeKieviet, U D Jentschura

Affiliations

  1. Physikalisches Institut der Universität, Albert-Ueberle-Strasse 3-5, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.

PMID: 22400837 DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.043005

Abstract

The thermal friction force acting on an atom moving relative to a thermal photon bath is known to be proportional to an integral over the imaginary part of the frequency-dependent atomic (dipole) polarizability. Using a numerical approach, we find that blackbody friction on atoms either in dilute environments or in hot ovens is larger than previously thought by orders of magnitude. This enhancement is due to far off-resonant driving of transitions by low-frequency thermal radiation. At typical temperatures, the blackbody radiation maximum lies far below the atomic transition wavelengths. Surprisingly, due to the finite lifetime of atomic levels, which gives rise to Lorentzian line profiles, far off-resonant excitation leads to the dominant contribution for blackbody friction.

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