Quantum friction between metals in the hydrodynamic regime

in Physical Review. A. (2022), 106

We study the phenomenon of quantum friction in a system consisting of a polarizable atom moving at a constant speed parallel to a metallic plate. The metal is described using a charged hydrodynamic model ... [more ▼]

We study the phenomenon of quantum friction in a system consisting of a polarizable atom moving at a constant speed parallel to a metallic plate. The metal is described using a charged hydrodynamic model for the electrons. This model featuring long-range interactions is appropriate for a clean metal in a temperature range where scattering due to Coulomb interactions dominates over the scattering of electron by impurities. We find that a quantum friction force between the atom and the metal surface exists even in the absence of intrinsic damping in the metal, but that it only starts once the velocity of the atom exceeds the effective speed of sound in the metal. We argue that this condition can be fulfilled most easily in metals with nearly empty or nearly filled bands. We make quantitative predictions for the friction force to the second and fourth order in the atomic polarizability, and show that the threshold behavior persists to all orders of the perturbation theory. [less ▲]

Generalized Chern numbers based on open system Green's functions

in New Journal of Physics (2021), 23

We present an alternative approach to studying topology in open quantum systems, relying directly on Green's functions and avoiding the need to construct an effective non-Hermitian (nH) Hamiltonian. We ... [more ▼]

We present an alternative approach to studying topology in open quantum systems, relying directly on Green's functions and avoiding the need to construct an effective non-Hermitian (nH) Hamiltonian. We define an energy-dependent Chern number based on the eigenstates of the inverse Green's function matrix of the system which contains, within the self-energy, all the information about the influence of the environment, interactions, gain or losses. We explicitly calculate this topological invariant for a system consisting of a single 2D Dirac cone and find that it is half-integer quantized when certain assumptions about the self-energy are made. Away from these conditions, which cannot or are not usually considered within the formalism of nH Hamiltonians, we find that such a quantization is usually lost and the Chern number vanishes, and that in special cases, it can change to integer quantization. [less ▲]