  The coupling between a moving ground-state atom and the quantum
electromagnetic field is at the origin of several intriguing phenomena ranging
from the dynamical Casimir emission of photons to Sagnac-like geometric phase
shifts in atom interferometers. Recent progress in this emerging field reveals
unprecedented connections between non-trivial aspects of modern physics such as
electrodynamic retardation, non-unitary evolution in open quantum systems,
geometric phases, non-locality and inertia.
