Radiation Rate of a Two-Level Atom in a Spacetime with a Reflecting Boundary

We study a two-level atom in interaction with a real massless scalar quantum field in a spacetime with a reflecting boundary. We calculate the rate of change of the atomic energy for the atom. The presence of the boundary modifies the quantum fluctuations of the scalar field, which in turn modifies the rate of change of the atomic energy. It is found that the modifications induced by the presence of a boundary make the spontaneous radiation rate of an excited atom to oscillate near the boundary and this oscillatory behaviour may offer a possible opportunity for experimental tests for geometrical (boundary) effects in flat spacetime.