卡西米尔力

量子电动力学中的卡西米尔力是真空零点能的体现.广义的卡西米尔力则依赖于涨落介质的类型广泛地出现于物理中,包括量子,临界,戈德斯通模,以及非平衡卡西米尔力.长程关联的涨落介质和约束是产生卡西米尔力的两个条件.本文通过回顾卡西米尔物理的发展,讨论了不同类型的卡西米尔力,几种正规化方法,并对卡西米尔物理的进一步发展做了展望.     

The Contribution of the Vacuum Fluctuation to Casimir Effect

The path integral method is a useful tool which can be used to calculate contribution of ghost field to Casimir effect^[6]. But only free field was considered rather than interaction field. In this paper, we consider contribution of the vacuum fluctuation of QED to Casimir effect with the aid of source-field separation and Wick's expansion, and a little additional attractive force can be obtained from this method.     

Repulsive and attractive Casimir forces between magnetodielectric slabs

The Casimir force between two parallel magnetodielectric slabs is investigated by means of Casimir–Lifshitz Theory. For two magnetodielectric slabs, one is permittivity-negative, while the other is permeability-negative in the real frequency space. Numerical results show that when the separation between these two slabs is small (or large), the Casimir force is repulsive, while for the intermediate separation, the Casimir force is attractive. As a consequence, there are two equilibria with zero Casimir force, and a repulsive–attractive–repulsive transition takes place with increasing the separation. Therefore, if the separation between two interacting slabs is manipulated in the small (or large) separation region, it is possible to overcome the stiction in micromechanical and nanomechanical systems.     

Application of the mutual-interaction method to a class of two-scatterer systems: I. Two discrete scatterers

In a recent paper we developed a formalism that fully accommodates the mutual interactions among scatterers separable by parallel planes. The total fields propagating away from these planes are the unknowns of a system of difference equations. Each scatterer is characterized by a scattering function that expresses the scattered wave amplitude as a function of the incident and scattered wavevectors for a unit-amplitude plane wave scattered from the object in isolation. This function can be derived completely from the scattered far field with the help of analytic continuation. For a two-scatterer system the mutual-interaction equations reduce to a single Fredholm integral equation of the second kind. It turns out that analytic solutions are tractable for those scattering functions that are Dirac deltas or a sum of products of separable functions of the incident and scattered wavevectors. Scattering functions for planes and isotropic scatterers, as well as electric and magnetic dipoles all possess this property and are considered. The exact scattering functions agree with results obtained by analytic continuation. This paper consists of two parts. Part I derives analytic solutions for two discrete scatterers (isotropic scatterers. electric dipoles, magnetic dipoles). Part II is devoted to scattering from an object (isotropic or dipole scatterer) near an interface separating two semi-infinite uniforn-media. Because the results in this paper are exact, the effects of near-field interactions can be assessed. The forms of the scattering solutions can be adapted to objects that are both radiating and scattering.     

Application of the mutual-interaction method to a class of two-scatterer systems: I. Two discrete scatterers

Abstract

In a recent paper we developed a formalism that fully accommodates the mutual interactions among scatterers separable by parallel planes. The total fields propagating away from these planes are the unknowns of a system of difference equations. Each scatterer is characterized by a scattering function that expresses the scattered wave amplitude as a function of the incident and scattered wavevectors for a unit-amplitude plane wave scattered from the object in isolation. This function can be derived completely from the scattered far field with the help of analytic continuation. For a two-scatterer system the mutual-interaction equations reduce to a single Fredholm integral equation of the second kind. It turns out that analytic solutions are tractable for those scattering functions that are Dirac deltas or a sum of products of separable functions of the incident and scattered wavevectors. Scattering functions for planes and isotropic scatterers, as well as electric and magnetic dipoles all possess this property and are considered. The exact scattering functions agree with results obtained by analytic continuation. This paper consists of two parts. Part I derives analytic solutions for two discrete scatterers (isotropic scatterers. electric dipoles, magnetic dipoles). Part II is devoted to scattering from an object (isotropic or dipole scatterer) near an interface separating two semi-infinite uniforn-media. Because the results in this paper are exact, the effects of near-field interactions can be assessed. The forms of the scattering solutions can be adapted to objects that are both radiating and scattering.     

Finite temperature Casimir effect in Kaluza–Klein spacetime

In this article, we consider the finite temperature Casimir effect in Kaluza–Klein spacetime due the vacuum fluctuation of massless scalar field with Dirichlet boundary conditions. We consider the general case where the extra dimensions (internal space) can be any compact connected manifold or orbifold without boundaries. Using piston analysis, we show that the Casimir force is always attractive at any temperature, regardless of the geometry of the internal space. Moreover, the magnitude of the Casimir force increases as the size of the internal space increases and it reduces to the Casimir force in (3+1)$(3+1)$-dimensional Minkowski spacetime when the size of the internal space shrinks to zero. In the other extreme where the internal space is large, the Casimir force can increase beyond all bound. Asymptotic behaviors of the Casimir force in the low and high temperature regimes are derived and it is observed that the magnitude of the Casimir force grows linearly with temperature in the high temperature regime.     

Oscillating Casimir force between two slabs in a Fermi sea

The Casimir effect for two parallel slabs immersed in an ideal Fermi sea is investigated at both zero and nonzero temperatures. It is found that the Casimir effect in a Fermi gas is distinctly different from that in an electromagnetic field or a massive Bose gas. In contrast to the familiar result that the Casimir force decreases monotonically with the increase of the separation L between two slabs in an electromagnetic field and a massive Bose gas, the Casimir force in a Fermi gas oscillates as a function of L. The Casimir force can be either attractive or repulsive, depending sensitively on the magnitude of L. In addition, it is found that the amplitude of the Casimir force in a Fermi gas decreases with the increase of the temperature, which also is contrary to the case in a Bose gas, since the bosonic Casimir force increases linearly with the increase of the temperature in the region T < T_c, where T_c is the critical temperature of the Bose-Einstein condensation.     

Finite-temperature Casimir effect in piston geometry and its classical limit

We consider the Casimir force acting on a d-dimensional rectangular piston due to a massless scalar field with periodic, Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions and an electromagnetic field with perfect electric-conductor and perfect magnetic-conductor boundary conditions. The Casimir energy in a rectangular cavity is derived using the cut-off method. It is shown that the divergent part of the Casimir energy does not contribute to the Casimir force acting on the piston, thus renders an unambiguously defined Casimir force acting on the piston. At any temperature, it is found that the Casimir force acting on the piston increases from −∞ to 0 when the separation a between the piston and the opposite wall increases from 0 to ∞. This implies that the Casimir force is always an attractive force pulling the piston towards the closer wall, and the magnitude of the force gets larger as the separation a gets smaller. Explicit exact expressions for the Casimir force for small and large plate separations and for low and high temperatures are computed. The limits of the Casimir force acting on the piston when some pairs of transversal plates are large are also derived. An interesting result regarding the influence of temperature is that in contrast to the conventional result that the leading term of the Casimir force acting on a wall of a rectangular cavity at high temperature is the Stefan–Boltzmann (or black-body radiation) term which is of order T ^d+1, it is found that the contributions of this term from the two regions separating the piston cancel with each other in the case of piston. The high-temperature leading-order term of the Casimir force acting on the piston is of order T, which shows that the Casimir force has a nontrivial classical ℏ→0 limit. Explicit formulas for the classical limit are computed.     

On the Relation Between Casimir Forces and Bulk Correlations

Within a microscopic approach we show that in the case of an ideal quantum gas enclosed in a slit the Casimir force can be simply expressed in terms of the bulk one-particle density matrix. The corresponding formula, which holds both for bosons and fermions, allows to relate the range of the Casimir force to the bulk correlation length. The low-temperature behavior of the Casimir forces is derived.     

A Model of Heat Conduction

In this paper, we first define a deterministic particle model for heat conduction. It consists of a chain of N identical subsystems, each of which contains a scatterer and with particles moving among these scatterers. Based on this model, we then derive heuristically, in the limit of N → ∞ and decreasing scattering cross-section, a Boltzmann equation for this limiting system. This derivation is obtained by a closure argument based on memory loss between collisions. We then prove that the Boltzmann equation has, for stochastic driving forces at the boundary, close to Maxwellians, a unique non-equilibrium steady state.     

Experiment and theory in the Casimir effect

Casimir effect is the attractive force which acts between two plane parallel, closely spaced, uncharged, metallic plates in vacuum. This phenomenon was predicted theoretically in 1948 and reliably investigated experimentally only in recent years. In fact, the Casimir force is similar to the familiar van der Waals force in the case of relatively large separations when the relativistic effects come into play. We review the most important experiments on measuring the Casimir force by means of torsion pendulum, atomic force microscope and micromechanical torsional oscillator. Special attention is paid to the puzzle of the thermal Casimir force, i.e. to the apparent violation of the third law of thermodynamics when the Lifshitz theory of dispersion forces is applied to real metals. Thereafter we discuss the role of the Casimir force in nanosystems including the stiction phenomenon, actuators, and interaction of hydrogen atoms with carbon nanotubes. The applications of the Casimir effect for constraining predictions of extra-dimensional unification schemes and other physics beyond the standard model are also considered.     

A new approach to the evaluation of Casimir and van der Waals forces in the transition region

This paper studies the incorporation of Casimir and van der Waals forces applied to a nanostructure with parallel configuration. The focus of this study is in a transition region in which Casimir force gradually transforms into van der Waals force. It is proposed that in the transition region, a proportion of both Casimir and van der Waals forces, as the interacting nanoscale forces, can be considered based on the separation distance between upper structure and substrate during deflection. Moreover, as the separation distance descends during deflection, the nanoscale forces could transform from Casimir to a proportion of both Casimir and van der Waals forces and so as to van der Waals. This is also extended to the entire surface of the nanostructure in such a way that any point of the structure may be subjected to Casimir, van der Waals or a proportion of both of them about its separation distance from the substrate. Therefore, a mathematical model is presented which calculate the incorporation of Casimir and van der Waals forces considering transition region and their own domination area. The mechanical behavior of a circular nano-plate has been investigated as a case study to illustrate how different approaches to nanoscale forces lead to different results. For this purpose, the pull-in phenomena and frequency response in terms of magnitude have been studied based on Eringen nonlocal elasticity theory. The results are presented using different values of the nonlocal parameter and indicated in comparison with those of the classical theory. These results also amplify the idea of studying the mechanical behavior of nanostructures using the nonlocal elasticity theory.     

含色散特异材料三明治结构的量子悬浮效应

在金属板与电介质材料板基底间插入色散特异材料板形成三明治结构,并对其Casimir作用力进行了研究.基于Casimir-Lifshitz理论,通过麦克斯韦应力张量计算了真空涨落的辐射压,并对三明治结构利用电磁模式传输矩阵方法进行了数值计算分析.计算结果表明,原本两板结构中存在的Casimir吸引力,在插入特异材料板后的三明治结构中将转变为斥力,从而使轻薄的金属板产生量子悬浮效应。讨论了特异材料板的色散电磁响应特性以及电介质板基底的影响,结果表明特异材料磁等离子频率越大、磁共振频率越小以及电介质板基底的介电常数越小时,三明治结构中获得的斥力越大.此外,板间距增加到一定范围时,三明治结构中将出现Casimir平衡回复力.特异材料填充因子越小、三明治结构中层距和层厚越大时,三明治结构间的回复力会出现在较长距的位置.三明治结构中的量子悬浮效应与平衡回复力可保证微纳米机械系统稳定性,展现出基于真空辐射压的应用前景.     

Parameter estimation in dynamic Casimir force measurements with known periodicity

It is important to have an accurate estimate of the unknown parameters such as the separation distance between interacting materials in Casimir force measurements. Current methods tend to produce large estimation errors. In this Letter, we present a novel method based on an adaptive control approach to estimate the unknown parameters using large amplitude dynamic Casimir measurements at separation distances of below 1 μm where both electrostatic force and Casimir force are significant. The estimate is proved to be accurate and the effectiveness of our method is demonstrated via a numerical example.     

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.     

Attractive and repulsive Casimir vacuum energy with general boundary conditions

The infrared behaviour of quantum field theories confined in bounded domains is strongly dependent on the shape and structure of space boundaries. The most significant physical effect arises in the behaviour of the vacuum energy. The Casimir energy can be attractive or repulsive depending on the nature of the boundary. We calculate the vacuum energy for a massless scalar field confined between two homogeneous parallel plates with the most general type of boundary conditions depending on four parameters. The analysis provides a powerful method to identify which boundary conditions generate attractive or repulsive Casimir forces between the plates. In the interface between both regimes we find a very interesting family of boundary conditions which do not induce any type of Casimir force. We also show that the attractive regime holds far beyond identical boundary conditions for the two plates required by the Kenneth–Klich theorem and that the strongest attractive Casimir force appears for periodic boundary conditions whereas the strongest repulsive Casimir force corresponds to anti-periodic boundary conditions. Most of the analysed boundary conditions are new and some of them can be physically implemented with metamaterials.     

Casimir Force of Piston Systems with Arbitrary Cross Sections under Different Boundary Conditions

We study the Casimir force between two pistons under different boundary conditions inside an infinite cylinder with arbitrary cross section. It is found that the attractive or repulsive character of the Casimir force for a scalar field is determined only by the boundary condition along the longitudinal direction and is independent of the cross section, transverse boundary conditions and the mass of the field. Under symmetric Dirichlet-Dirichlet, Neumann-Neumann and periodic longitudinal boundary conditions the Casimir force is always attractive, but is repulsive under non-symmetric Dirichlet-Neumann and anti-periodic longitudinal boundary conditions. The Casimir force of the electromagnetic field in an ideal conductive piston is also investigated. This force is always attractive regardless of the shape of the cross section and the transverse boundary conditions.     

A verification of quantum field theory — measurement of Casimir force

Here we review our work on measurement of the Casimir force between a large aluminum coated a sphere and flat plate using an atomic force microscope. The average statistical precision is 1% of the force measured at the closest separation. We have also shown nontrival boundary dependence of the Casimir force.     

Repulsive Casimir force between gyroelectric slabs

We obtain the repulsive Casimir force between two parallel gyroelectric slabs, thus overcoming the difficulty that the repulsive Casimir force is difficult to achieve in a naturally occurring material. Under practically realizable parameters, we realize the crossover from attractive (repulsive) to repulsive (attractive) forces by changing either the external static magnetic field, the background permittivity of the gyroelectric medium, the slab’s thickness or the gap between the slabs. The proposed configuration, unlike the artificial metamaterial one, does not require the careful design of the material’s micro-structure, and hence is expected to be a practical candidate for obtaining a repulsive Casimir force.     

Oscillating Casimir Effect of a Trapped Fermi Gas

We study the Casimir effect for two parallel slabs immersed in a harmonically trapped Fermi gas. The Casimir force and its distribution on the slabs are calculated. It is found that the Casimir force oscillates with the separation L _z of the slabs and can be either attractive or repulsive, depending sensitively on the size of L _z . It is also found that the size and sign of the Casimir pressure (i.e., the Casimir force on the unit area) oscillates with the variation of the distance r away from the center of the harmonic potential and its amplitude decreases with the increase of r.