Casimir force on a piston at finite temperature in Randall-Sundrum models

The Casimir effect for a three-parallel-plate system at finite temperature within the framework of five-dimensional Randall-Sundrum models is studied. In the case of the Randall-Sundrum model involving two branes we find that the Casimir force depends on the plate distance and temperature after one outer plate has been moved to a distant place. Further we discover that the sign of the reduced force is negative if the plate and piston are located close together, but the nature of reduced force becomes repulsive when the plate distance is not very small and finally the repulsive force vanishes with extremely large plate separation. A higher temperature causes a greater repulsive Casimir force. Within the framework of a one-brane scenario the reduced Casimir force between the piston and one plate remains attractive no matter how high the temperature is. It is interesting that a stronger thermal effect leads to a greater attractive Casimir force instead of changing the nature of the force.     

Influence of surface electronic structure on the Casimir force

Recent nonlocal microscopic theory of Casimir force which expresses the interaction energy between two metallic slabs in terms of surface polariton propagators calculated from diamagnetic and paramagnetic current-current response functions, sensitive to details of the surface electron density profiles and single-particle excitations on the surfaces, is used here to calculate various contributions to the Casimir energies for a silver film described by two different models. Current-current response functions are constructed from energy levels and wave functions obtained in two different models: jellium and Chulkov one-dimensional model potential, and the results are compared with the local plasmon model results. The results show how the details of such surface electronic structure modify Casimir force.     

Effects of the Casimir force on the properties of a hybrid optomechanical system

We investigate the effects of the Casimir force on the output properties of a hybrid optomechanical system. In this system, a nanosphere is fixed on the movable-mirror side of the standard optomechanical system, and the nanosphere interacts with the movable-mirror via the Casimir force, which depends on the mirror–sphere separation. In the presence of the probe and control fields, we analyze the transmission coefficient and the group delay of the field-component with the frequency of the probe field. We also study the transmission intensity of the field-component with the frequency of a newly generated four-wave mixing(FWM) field. By manipulating the Casimir force, we find that a tunable slow light can be realized for the field-component with the frequency of the probe field, and the intensity spectrum of the FWM field can be enhanced and shifted effectively.     

Analysis of sound propagation in a fluid through a screen of scatterers

A multiple scattering analysis in a nonviscous fluid is developed in detail in order to predict the coherent sound motion in the presence of disordered heterogeneities, such as particles, fibers, bubbles, or contrast agents. Scatterers can be homogeneous, layered, shell-like with encapsulated liquids or gas, nonabsorbing, or absorbing, and can take a wide variety of shapes. A priori imposed limitations or physical assumptions are absent in the derivation, whether they concern the expected response of the fluid-scatterer mixture, the scatterer size relative to wavelength, or the scatterer concentration or the screen thickness. However, as in any multiple scattering formulation, a closure assumption is invoked. Closed-form results for the backscattered and forward-scattered wave motions on either side of the screen of scatterers are obtained. The fluid-scatterer mixture is shown to behave as an effective dissipative medium from the standpoint of the coherent motion. It is found that the effective medium is fully described once two parameters are determined: the effective wave number and the reflection coefficient for the associated half-space screen. Remarkably, both parameters depend only on the far-field scattering properties of a single scatterer.     

The Casimir force on a piston in the spacetime with extra compactified dimensions

A Casimir piston for massless scalar fields obeying Dirichlet boundary conditions in high-dimensional spacetimes within the frame of Kaluza–Klein theory is analyzed. We derive and calculate the exact expression for the Casimir force on the piston. We also compute the Casimir force in the limit that one outer plate is moved to the extremely distant place to show that the reduced force is associated with the properties of additional spatial dimensions. The more dimensionality the spacetime has, the stronger the extra-dimension influence is. The Casimir force for the piston in the model including a third plate under the background with extra compactified dimensions always keeps attractive. Further we find that when the limit is taken the Casimir force between one plate and the piston will change to be the same form as the corresponding force for the standard system consisting of two parallel plates in the four-dimensional spacetimes if the ratio of the plate-piston distance and extra dimensions size is large enough.     

Noise, coherent fluctuations, and the onset of order in an oscillated granular fluid

We study fluctuations in a vertically oscillated layer of grains below the critical acceleration for the onset of ordered standing waves. As onset is approached, transient disordered waves with a characteristic length scale emerge and increase in power and coherence. The scaling behavior and the shift in the onset of order agrees with the Swift-Hohenberg theory for convection in fluids. However, the noise in the granular system is an order of magnitude larger than the thermal noise in the most sensitive convecting fluid experiments to date; the effect of the granular noise is observable 20% below the onset of order.     

Casimir force with the inclusion of a finite thickness of interacting plates

The Casimir force between two thin metal films is calculated with allowance made for a finite thickness of the films and a finite plasma frequency. The conditions are determined under which the Casimir force in the films can be weakened considerably (by at least one order of magnitude) as compared to massive metal plates. A comparison with the available experimental data is performed and the conclusion is drawn that the observed values of the Casimir force for the films can be explained in terms of the existing theory under the assumption that the wavelength of plasma oscillations in real films is larger than 1000 nm.     

Exact solution for coherent backscattering of polarized light from a random medium of Rayleigh scatterers

We discuss a rigorous vectorial theory as a model to represent the enhanced backscattering of polarized light from a random medium. The theory is based on the well known relation between the contributions of the ladder and cyclical diagrams to the intensity which allows to express these contributions in terms of radiative transfer theory. The tensor transfer equation for the electromagnetic field in a half-space occupied by point-like scatterers is explicitly solved with the aid of the Wiener-Hopf method. For the case of normal incidence the angular distribution of the backscattered intensity and the enhancement factor are found for arbitrary angles between the incident and detected linear polarizations and the scanning plane. To describe spatial anisotropy of the backscattering cone the half width at half maximum of the intensity is calculated as a function of these angles. Coherent backscattering of circularly polarized light is also considered.     

The technique of coherent echo processing in the approximation of a small number of point scatterers

In this paper, we aim at studying the structure of individual samples of coherent echo signals and determining signal features that permit one to detect coherent backscatter and also improve the methods of signal processing. We offer a model of the received signal in the form of a square pulse with duration of the order of the sounding pulse length and filled with a sinusoidal signal of arbitrary frequency. It is shown that this model is quite effective to interpret coherent echo signals in some cases. There are two ways of practical use of the model. One is a technique which singles out the sounding sessions in which strong coherent echo signals are distinguished against the background of other signals received by the Irkutsk incoherent scatter radar. Another is a technique of the spatial resolution improvement.     

Effects of Casimir force on high-order sideband generation in an optomechanical system

We introduce a Casimir force in a conventional optomechanical system to study the high-order sideband generation. In this system, a nanosphere is placed near the moveable mirror of the conventional optomechanical system. The moveable mirror is coupled to the cavity field and the nanosphere by the optomechanical interaction and the Casimir interaction, respectively. We find that the amplitude and cutoff order of the high-order sideband can be enhanced by decreasing the sphere–mirror separation(increasing the Casimir force) and increasing the optomechanical coupling strength. Our proposal provides an alternative method for generating the high-order sidebands and for measuring the Casimir force.     

Effect of the electric current on the Casimir force between graphene sheets

The dependence of the thermal component of the Casimir force and Casimir friction between graphene sheets on the drift velocity of charge carriers in one of the sheets has been analyzed. It has been shown that the drift motion results in the measurable change in the thermal Casimir force owing to the Doppler effect. The thermal Casimir force, as well as Casimir friction, increases strongly in the case of resonant photon tunneling, when the energy of an emitted photon coincides with the excitation energy of an electron-hole pair. In the case of resonant photon tunneling, the dominant contribution to the Casimir friction even at temperatures above room temperature comes from quantum friction caused by quantum fluctuations. Quantum friction can be detected in an experiment on the friction drag between graphene sheets in a high electric field.     

Casimir force on a surface with shallow nanoscale corrugations: geometry and finite conductivity effects

We measure the Casimir force between a gold sphere and a silicon plate with nanoscale, rectangular corrugations with a depth comparable to the separation between the surfaces. In the proximity force approximation (PFA), both the top and bottom surfaces of the corrugations contribute to the force, leading to a distance dependence that is distinct from a flat surface. The measured Casimir force is found to deviate from the PFA by up to 10%, in good agreement with calculations based on scattering theory that includes both geometry effects and the optical properties of the material.     

Clearing effects and radiative transfer in a medium with large-scale fluctuations in the density of scatterers

Radiophysics and Quantum Electronics -     

Influence of quantum wire cross section fluctuations on transport phenomena

For all currently available methods of quantum wire (QWI) fabrication the cross section of the QWI varies along the length, producing fluctuations in the energy position of the subband energy along the QWI. This fluctuation leads to a smearing of the peak-like structure of the dependence of the average density of states on carrier energy. This, in turn, results in a smearing of the peak-like structure of the dependence of the resistivity of a QWI on the Fermi energy and/or total electron concentration, and in an increase of resistivity. In previous attempts to obtain agreement between theory and experiment the subband energy fluctuation was not taken into account, that is why the importance of other factors, such as impurity scattering, have been overestimated.     

Discontinuity of mode transition and hysteresis in hydrogen inductively coupled plasma via a fluid model

A new type of two-dimensional self-consistent fluid model that couples an equivalent circuit module is used to investigate the mode transition characteristics and hysteresis in hydrogen inductively coupled plasmas at different pressures,by varying the series capacitance of the matching box. The variations of the electron density, temperature, and the circuit electrical properties are presented. As cycling the matching capacitance, at high pressure both the discontinuity and hysteresis appear for the plasma parameters and the transferred impedances of both the inductive and capacitive discharge components, while at low pressure only the discontinuity is seen. The simulations predict that the sheath plays a determinative role on the presence of discontinuity and hysteresis at high pressure, by influencing the inductive coupling efficiency of applied power. Moreover, the values of the plasma transferred impedances at different pressures are compared, and the larger plasma inductance at low pressure due to less collision frequency, as analyzed, is the reason why the hysteresis is not seen at low pressure, even with a wider sheath. Besides, the behaviors of the coil voltage and current parameters during the mode transitions are investigated. They both increase(decrease) at the E to H(H to E) mode transition, indicating an improved(worsened) inductive power coupling efficiency.