Atom-atom van der Waals Interactions through a Lens

We study the fluctuation-mediated interactions between two atoms in the presence of an aplanatic lens, demonstrating an enhancement in the resonant part of their van der Waals interaction. We derive the field propagation of the linear optical system in terms of its electromagnetic Green's tensor. We analyze the collective internal atomic dynamics via a Lindblad master equation, which allows one to characterize the dispersive and dissipative interactions between atoms. Furthermore we describe the quantized center of mass dynamics of the atoms, studying the possibility of creating a novel trapping mechanism. Our work opens new avenues for expanding van der Waals interactions to macroscopic scales and the experimental platforms to study them.