NDLI: Will Small Particles Exhibit Brownian Motion in the Quantum Vacuum?

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Gour, Gilad Sriramkumar, L.
Copyright Year	1999
Abstract	The Brownian motion of small particles interacting with a field at a finite temperature is a well-known and well-understood phenomenon. At zero temperature, even though the thermal fluctuations are absent, quantum fields still possess vacuum fluctuations. It is then interesting to ask whether a small particle that is interacting with a quantum field will exhibit Brownian motion when the quantum field is assumed to be in the vacuum state. In this paper, we study the cases of a small charge and an imperfect mirror interacting with a quantum scalar field in (1 + 1) dimensions. Treating the quantum field as a classical stochastic variable, we write down a Langevin equation for the particles. We show that the results we obtain from such an approach agree with the results obtained from the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. Unlike the finite temperature case, there exists no special frame of reference at zero temperature and hence it is essential that the particles do not break Lorentz invariance. We find that that the scalar charge breaks Lorentz invariance, whereas the imperfect mirror does not. We conclude that small particles such as the imperfect mirror will exhibit Brownian motion even in the quantum vacuum, but this effect can be so small that it may prove to be difficult to observe it experimentally.
Starting Page	1917
Ending Page	1949
Page Count	33
File Format	PDF
ISSN	00159018
Journal	Foundations of Physics
Volume Number	29
Issue Number	12
e-ISSN	15729516
Language	English
Publisher	Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum Publishers
Publisher Date	1999-01-01
Publisher Place	New York
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Physics Quantum Physics Mechanics Relativity and Cosmology Condensed Matter Biophysics/Biomedical Physics
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Physics and Astronomy

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