Unconventional Distance Scaling of Casimir-Polder Force between Atomic Arrays
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Quantum Physics arXiv:2601.22640 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 30 Jan 2026] Title:Unconventional Distance Scaling of Casimir-Polder Force between Atomic Arrays Authors:Qihang Ye, Qihang Ye, Bing Miao, Lei Ying View a PDF of the paper titled Unconventional Distance Scaling of Casimir-Polder Force between Atomic Arrays, by Qihang Ye and 2 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Conventionally, dispersion forces mediated by quantum vacuum fluctuations are known to exhibit universal distance scalings, with retardation typically leading to a faster decay of the interaction. Here, we show that this expectation fails for intrinsically discrete systems. Using the microscopic scattering approach, we study the Casimir-Polder interaction between two atomic arrays, and uncover an unconventional distance scaling in which the force crosses over from a faster decay at short separations to a slower decay in the retarded regime. This behavior originates from the discrete lattice structure and can be consistently understood within the scattering picture. Extending our analysis to Rydberg atomic arrays, we predict an even stronger deviation from conventional scaling and propose an experimentally feasible scheme for direct measurement. Our results provide a new platform for exploring dispersion forces beyond the continuum limit. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2601.22640 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2601.22640v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.22640 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Lei Ying [view email] [v1] Fri, 30 Jan 2026 06:57:40 UTC (1,501 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Unconventional Distance Scaling of Casimir-Polder Force between Atomic Arrays, by Qihang Ye and 2 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-01 Change to browse by: physics physics.atom-ph 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?) Links to Code Toggle Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?) 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?)