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Virtual Resonant Emission And Oscillatory Long-Range Tails In Van Der Waals Interactions Of Excited States: Qedtreatment And Applications, Ulrich D. Jentschura, Chandra Mani Adhikari, Vincent Debierre

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We report on a quantum electrodynamic (QED) investigation of the interaction between a ground state atom with another atom in an excited state. General expressions, applicable to any atom, are indicated for the long-range tails that are due to virtual resonant emission and absorption into and from vacuum modes whose frequency equals the transition frequency to available lower-lying atomic states. For identical atoms, one of which is in an excited state, we also discuss the mixing term that depends on the symmetry of the two-atom wave function (these evolve into either the gerade or the ungerade state for close approach), …