  A general theory of the interaction of the quantized electromagnetic field
with atoms in the presence of dispersing and absorbing dielectric bodies of
given Kramers--Kronig consistent permittivities is developed. It is based on a
source-quantity representation of the electromagnetic field, in which the
electromagnetic-field operators are expressed in terms of a continuous set of
fundamental bosonic fields via the Green tensor of the classical problem.
Introducing scalar and vector potentials, the formalism is extended in order to
include in the theory the interaction of the quantized electromagnetic field
with additional atoms. Both the minimal-coupling scheme and the
multipolar-coupling scheme are considered. The theory replaces the standard
concept of mode decomposition which fails for complex permittivities. It
enables us to treat the effects of dispersion and absorption in a consistent
way and to give a unified approach to the atom-field interaction, without any
restriction to a particular interaction regime in a particular frequency range.
All relevant information about the dielectric bodies such as form and intrinsic
dispersion and absorption is contained in the Green tensor. The application of
the theory to the spontaneous decay of an excited atom in the presence of
dispersing and absorbing bodies is addressed.
