title: Super-Coulombic atom-atom interactions in hyperbolic media.
abstract: Dipole-dipole interactions, which govern phenomena such as cooperative Lamb shifts, superradiant decay rates, Van der Waals forces and resonance energy transfer rates, are conventionally limited to the Coulombic near-field. Here we reveal a class of real-photon and virtual-photon long-range quantum electrodynamic interactions that have a singularity in media with hyperbolic dispersion. The singularity in the dipole-dipole coupling, referred to as a super-Coulombic interaction, is a result of an effective interaction distance that goes to zero in the ideal limit irrespective of the physical distance. We investigate the entire landscape of atom-atom interactions in hyperbolic media confirming the giant long-range enhancement. We also propose multiple experimental platforms to verify our predicted effect with phonon-polaritonic hexagonal boron nitride, plasmonic super-lattices and hyperbolic meta-surfaces as well. Our work paves the way for the control of cold atoms above hyperbolic meta-surfaces and the study of many-body physics with hyperbolic media.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2V4.|Birck Nanotechnology Center and Purdue Quantum Center, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, 1205 West State Street, West Lafayette, Indiana 47906, USA.
authors.forename: Cristian L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Cortes
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2V4.|Birck Nanotechnology Center and Purdue Quantum Center, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, 1205 West State Street, West Lafayette, Indiana 47906, USA.
authors.forename: Zubin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Jacob