@phdthesis{Schiefele2011,
  author    = {Schiefele, J{\"u}rgen},
  title     = {Casimir-Polder interaction in second quantization},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-54171},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  year      = {2011},
  abstract  = {The Casimir-Polder interaction between a single neutral atom and a nearby surface, arising from the (quantum and thermal) fluctuations of the electromagnetic field, is a cornerstone of cavity quantum electrodynamics (cQED), and theoretically well established. Recently, Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) of ultracold atoms have been used to test the predictions of cQED. The purpose of the present thesis is to upgrade single-atom cQED with the many-body theory needed to describe trapped atomic BECs. Tools and methods are developed in a second-quantized picture that treats atom and photon fields on the same footing. We formulate a diagrammatic expansion using correlation functions for both the electromagnetic field and the atomic system. The formalism is applied to investigate, for BECs trapped near surfaces, dispersion interactions of the van der Waals-Casimir-Polder type, and the Bosonic stimulation in spontaneous decay of excited atomic states. We also discuss a phononic Casimir effect, which arises from the quantum fluctuations in an interacting BEC.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{SchiefeleHenkel2009,
  author    = {Schiefele, J{\"u}rgen and Henkel, Carsten},
  title     = {Casimir energy of a BEC : from moderate interactions to the ideal gas},
  issn      = {1751-8113},
  doi       = {10.1088/1751-8113/42/4/045401},
  year      = {2009},
  abstract  = {Considering the Casimir effect due to phononic excitations of a weakly interacting dilute Bose-Einstein condensate ( BEC), we derive a renormalized expression for the zero-temperature Casimir energy E-C of a BEC confined to a parallel plate geometry with periodic boundary conditions. Our expression is formally equivalent to the free energy of a bosonic field at finite temperature, with a nontrivial density of modes that we compute analytically. As a function of the interaction strength, E-C smoothly describes the transition from the weakly interacting Bogoliubov regime to the non- interacting ideal BEC. For the weakly interacting case, E-C reduces to leading order to the Casimir energy due to zero- point fluctuations of massless phonon modes. In the limit of an ideal Bose gas, our result correctly describes the Casimir energy going to zero.},
  language  = {en}
}