Dipole-dipole shift of quantum emitters coupled to surface plasmons of a nano-wire

Placing quantum emitters close to a metallic nano-wire, an effective interaction can be achieved over distances large compared to the resonance wavelength due to the strong coupling between emitters and the surface plasmon modes of the wire. This leads to modified collective decay rates, as well as to Lamb and dipole-dipole shifts. In this paper we present a general method for calculating these level shifts which we subsequently apply to the case of a pair of atoms coupled to the guided modes of a nano-wire.