Non-perturbative mass renormalization effects in non-relativistic quantum electrodynamics*

When molecules are placed inside a cavity or near a plasmonic surface strong light-matter interaction can occur that mixes matter and photon degrees of freedom [1]. This can modify properties of molecules [2] and can even alter chemical reactions due to the changed electromagnetic vacuum. The theoretical descriptions of such novel chemical situations is usually done with simplified few-level models [3] and only recently more advanced ab-initio methods [3] have been developed and applied [4]. However, so far all these considerations have neglected the influence of the changed electromagnetic vacuum on the masses of the particles. That is, while the mass of electrons and nuclei are usually defined with respect to the bare electromagnetic vacuum, in the above cases the electromagnetic vacuum is changed considerably. Here we present first ab-initio studies of how multi-mode fields influence the renormalized mass of the particles and thus change physical observables of tomic and molecular systems [5].

[1] R. J. Thompson, G. Rempe, H. J. Kimble, Phys. Rev. Lett. 68 (1992)

[2] T. W. Ebbesen, Acc. Chem. Res. 49 2403(2016)

[3] M. Ruggenthaler et al., Nature Reviews Chemistry 2, 0118 (2018)

[4] J. Flick, D. M. Welakuh et al., ACS Photonics 6, 11, 2757–2778 (2019).

[5] D. M. Welakuh et al., Non-perturbative mass renormalization effects in non-relativistic quantum electrodynamics.' arXiv:2310.03213 (2023)