Thermal and nonthermal scaling of the Casimir-Polder interaction in a black hole spacetime

We study the Casimir-Polder force arising between two identical two-level atoms and mediated by a massless scalar field propagating in a black-hole background. We study the interplay of Hawking radiation and Casimir-Polder forces and find that, when the atoms are placed near the event horizon, the scaling of the Casimir-Polder interaction energy as a function of interatomic distance displays a transition from a thermal-like character to a nonthermal behavior. We corroborate our findings for a quantum field prepared in the Boulware, Hartle-Hawking, and Unruh vacua. Our analysis is consistent with the nonthermal character of the Casimir-Polder interaction of two-level atoms in a relativistic accelerated frame [J. Marino et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 020403 (2014)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.113.020403], where a crossover from thermal scaling, consistent with the Unruh effect, to a nonthermal scaling has been observed. The two crossovers are a consequence of the noninertial character of the background where the field mediating the Casimir interaction propagates. While in the former case the characteristic crossover length scale is proportional to the inverse of the surface gravity of the black hole, in the latter it is determined by the inverse of the proper acceleration of the atoms.