Fluctuational Quantum Electrodynamics of Dispersive Time-Varying Media
We present the theoretical framework of fluctuational quantum electrodynamics in frequency-dispersive and dissipative time-varying media. Our theory accounts for dispersion and losses in the temporal modulation, which is treated in an exact manner, without relying on perturbative methods. Thus, our work constitutes the first consistent quantization of the electromagnetic field in time-modulated material bodies. We derive a Fermi Golden Rule for time-varying media and use it to define the local density of states for these time-dependent systems, which includes both loss and gain contributions. Additionally, we prove the equivalence between the quantum Fermi Golden Rule and the power emitted by a classical harmonic point dipole. Moreover, we show that neglecting the dispersive and dissipative nature of the time modulation leads to erroneous predictions for both slow and fast modulations. Furthermore, we analyze the thermal radiation emitted by a time-varying material body, revealing new features in the enhancement of thermal emission in time-varying media. Finally, we study the dynamical Casimir effect, showing how the time modulation amplifies vacuum fluctuations and generates entangled pairs of polaritons exhibiting non-local spatial correlations.