Macroscopic QED

The quantum vacuum is a region of space from which electromagnetic fields have been removed as completely as possible. However, quantum electrodynamics predicts unavoidable field fluctuations -- virtual photons, which are spontaneously created and annihilated.

Our group investigates the consequences of this intriguing concept on the basis of macroscopic quantum electrodynamics (QED).

Constitutive relations: magneto-electric media

Quantised electric field:

Green's tensor:

Polariton operators:

Hamiltonian:

Field Hamiltonian:

Atomic Hamiltonian:

Atom-field coupling:

^{S.Y. Buhmann, Dispersion forces I (Springer, Berlin, 2012)}

^{P.W. Milloni, The Quantum Vacuum (Academic press, New York, 1994)}

^{S.Y. Buhmann, in: Forces of the Quantum Vacuum, ed. by W. Simpson and U. Leonhardt (World Scientific Press, London, 2015)}