Vacuum field correlations and three-body Casimir-Polder potential with one excited atom

The three-body Casimir-Polder potential between one excited and two ground-state atoms is evaluated. A physical model based on the dressed field correlations of vacuum fluctuations is used, generalizing a model previously introduced for three ground-state atoms. Although the three-body potential with one excited atom is already known in the literature, our model gives new insights on the nature of non-additive Casimir-Polder forces with one or more excited atoms.