Atoms near a conducting wedge: Decay rates and entanglement around a corner

The behavior of an atomic system is influenced by introducing a metallic surface. This work explores how the decay landscape can be altered by the presence of sharp corners. We utilize analytical expressions for Hertz and vector potentials in the presence of a perfectly conducting wedge with arbitrary opening angle to obtain the relevant electrostatic Green's functions. We use these to examine two scenarios: the modified spontaneous decay of a single atom, which leads us to speculate about potential applications in microscopy, and the case of a more fundamental, theoretical interest, the behavior of an entangled pair of atoms near a corner. The latter, when two atoms are positioned "out of the line of sight," opens up a possible line of investigation into devices that are able to "see around corners."