Quantum Lamb model

Abstract

H. Lamb considered the classical dynamics of a vibrating particle embedded in an elastic medium before the development of quantum theory. Lamb was interested in how the back-action of the elastic waves generated can damp the vibrations of the particle. We propose a quantum version of Lamb's model. We show that this model is exactly solvable by using a multimode Bogoliubov transformation. We find that the exact system ground state is a multimode squeezed vacuum state, and we obtain the exact Bogoliubov frequencies by numerically solving a nonlinear integral equation. A closed-form expression for the damping rate of the particle is obtained, and it agrees with the result obtained by perturbation theory. The model provides a solvable example of the damped quantum harmonic oscillator.