Significant modifications of Lamb shift at small centripetal accelerations

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Peng, Yan, Hu, Jiawei, Yu, Hongwei
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
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author Peng, Yan
Hu, Jiawei
Yu, Hongwei
author_facet Peng, Yan
Hu, Jiawei
Yu, Hongwei
contents We investigate the Lamb shift of centripetally accelerated atoms coupled to electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations. Focusing on a very small orbital radius (so that the tangential speed remains nonrelativistic and the proper centripetal acceleration can be extremely small), we show that the resulting level shift is intrinsically anisotropic and depends sensitively on the atomic polarization direction. For atoms polarizable along the rotation axis, the leading noninertial contribution enters only at second order in the orbital radius and can slightly decrease or increase the energy-level spacing, depending on the angular-velocity regime. In contrast, for atoms polarizable perpendicular to the rotation axis, the noninertial contribution appears already at the leading order in the radius and always increases the energy-level spacing. Remarkably, when the angular velocity greatly exceeds the transition frequency, the rotation-induced correction can become comparable in magnitude to the inertial Lamb shift, indicating that circular motion can significantly modify the Lamb shift even in the regime of very small centripetal accelerations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_05945
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Significant modifications of Lamb shift at small centripetal accelerations
Peng, Yan
Hu, Jiawei
Yu, Hongwei
Quantum Physics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Theory
We investigate the Lamb shift of centripetally accelerated atoms coupled to electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations. Focusing on a very small orbital radius (so that the tangential speed remains nonrelativistic and the proper centripetal acceleration can be extremely small), we show that the resulting level shift is intrinsically anisotropic and depends sensitively on the atomic polarization direction. For atoms polarizable along the rotation axis, the leading noninertial contribution enters only at second order in the orbital radius and can slightly decrease or increase the energy-level spacing, depending on the angular-velocity regime. In contrast, for atoms polarizable perpendicular to the rotation axis, the noninertial contribution appears already at the leading order in the radius and always increases the energy-level spacing. Remarkably, when the angular velocity greatly exceeds the transition frequency, the rotation-induced correction can become comparable in magnitude to the inertial Lamb shift, indicating that circular motion can significantly modify the Lamb shift even in the regime of very small centripetal accelerations.
title Significant modifications of Lamb shift at small centripetal accelerations
topic Quantum Physics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.05945