Tunneling and traversal of ultracold atoms through vacuum-induced potentials

Abstract

We examine the passage of ultracold two-level atoms through the potential produced by the vacuum of the cavity field. We find that the phase time may be considered as the appropriate measure of the time required for the atom to traverse the cavity. The phase tunneling time for ultracold atoms exhibits both super- and sub-classical time and we show how this behavior may be understood in terms of the momentum dependence of the phase of transmission amplitude. The passage of the atom through the cavity is unique, as it involves a coherent addition of the transition amplitudes corresponding to both barrier and well.