Self-consistent radiative backaction in dispersion interactions: a minimal mQED model
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Quantum Physics arXiv:2605.02981 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 4 May 2026] Title:Self-consistent radiative backaction in dispersion interactions: a minimal mQED model Authors:Johannes Fiedler View a PDF of the paper titled Self-consistent radiative backaction in dispersion interactions: a minimal mQED model, by Johannes Fiedler View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Dispersion interactions are usually derived assuming fixed internal spectra of the interacting quantum systems. Here, we relax this assumption and study how self-consistent electromagnetic backaction modifies van der Waals interactions when excitation energies and transition dipole moments are allowed to respond to the interaction itself. Within a macroscopic quantum electrodynamics framework, we formulate a self-consistent treatment that includes both self-energy corrections and mutual backaction. Using a minimal three-level model, we show that, while one-sided self-energy effects are short-ranged, fully self-consistent backaction can lead to substantial, long-ranged modifications of the effective van der Waals interaction. Our analysis demonstrates that these effects originate from the coherent accumulation of repeated photon-mediated scattering processes. The results highlight limitations of perturbative dispersion theories with fixed spectra and identify few-level systems as a clean platform for studying backaction in dispersion forces. Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2605.02981 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2605.02981v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.02981 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Johannes Fiedler [view email] [v1] Mon, 4 May 2026 07:45:38 UTC (36 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Self-consistent radiative backaction in dispersion interactions: a minimal mQED model, by Johannes FiedlerView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-05 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)