The effects of virtual photons are very real. The Lamb shift and Unruh radiation are examples. It may even be possible to make real advances from virtual processes in solar cells. The three main topics to be covered are:

1. The Lamb Shift Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow [1];
2. Unruh Radiation is a (Virtual) Parametric Process [2];
3. Lasing Without Inversion and Enhanced Photocell Operation via Fano Interference [3].

Marlan O. Scully (Texas A&M and Princeton) is a laser physics pioneer. His work includes the first quantum theory of the laser with Lamb, the first demonstrations of lasing without inversion, the first demonstration of ultraslow light in hot gases, and the use of quantum coherence to detect anthrax in real time. Furthermore Scully's work on quantum coherence and correlation effects has shed new light on the foundations of quantum mechanics, e.g., the quantum eraser.

He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Academia Europaea, and Max Planck Society; has numerous awards including the APS Schawlow prize, OSA Townes Award, IEEE Quantum Electronics Award, Franklin Institute's Elliott Cresson Medal, OSA Lomb Medal, and Humboldt Senior Faculty Prize. More recently he was named Harvard Loeb Lecturer, received an honorary doctorate from University of Ulm, and was awarded the OSA's DPG Hebert Walther Award.

Purdue Quantum Center

1. M. Scully, “Collective Lamb Shift in Single Photon Dicke Superradiance”, Phys. Rev. Lett. (2009).
2. M. Scully, VV. Kocharovsky, A. Belyanin, E. Fry, and F. Capasso, “Enhancing Acceleration Radiation from Ground-State Atoms via Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics”, Phys. Rev. Lett. (2003).
3. M. Scully, “Quantum Photocell: Using Quantum Coherence to Reduce Radiative Recombination and Increase Efficiency”, Phys. Rev. Lett. (2010).

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Marlan O. Scully, Dawei Wang (2016), "VIRTUAL PHOTONS: From Lamb’s shift to Dicke’s superradiance," https://nanohub.org/resources/23914.

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1. nanophotonics
2. quantum science and information
3. solar cells