Decay Rate of an Excited Atom in a Moving Medium

The effect of a uniformly moving medium on the decay rate of an excited atom is calculated. When the local field effects are neglected, the free space decay rate is modified by a factor which is a complicated function of refractive index, permeability, and velocity of the medium. It is shown that the decay rate vanishes if the velocity of the medium exceeds the phase velocity of light in the stationary medium.