Localization of the relative position of two atoms induced by spontaneous emission

L. Zheng, C. Li, Y. Li, and C. P. Sun

Phys. Rev. A 71, 062101 – Published 9 June 2005

Abstract

We reexamine the back-action of emitted photons on the wave packet evolution about the relative position of two cold atoms. We show that photon recoil resulting from the spontaneous emission can induce the localization of the relative position of the two atoms through the entanglement between the spatial motion of individual atoms and their emitted photons. The obtained result provides a more realistic model for the analysis of the environment-induced localization of a macroscopic object.

Received 14 January 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.71.062101

Authors & Affiliations

L. Zheng^1,2, C. Li³, Y. Li³, and C. P. Sun^3,*

¹The Center of Theoretical Physics, Jilin University, Changchun,130023, China
²Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100080, China
³Institute of Theoretical Physics, The Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, 100080, China

^*Electronic address: suncp@itp.ac.cn; URL: http://www.itp.ac.cn/∼suncp

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Vol. 71, Iss. 6 — June 2005

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