Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Detectability Of Dissipative Motion In Quantum Vacuum Via Superradiance, Woo-Joong Kim, James Hayden Brownell, Roberto Onofrio

Dartmouth Scholarship

We propose an experiment for generating and detecting vacuum-induced dissipative motion. A high frequency mechanical resonator driven in resonance is expected to dissipate mechanical energy in quantum vacuum via photon emission. The photons are stored in a high quality electromagnetic cavity and detected through their interaction with ultracold alkali-metal atoms prepared in an inverted population of hyperfine states. Superradiant amplification of the generated photons results in a detectable radio- frequency signal temporally distinguishable from the expected background.