Heisenberg-Stipendium
Final Report Abstract
Fluctuation induced quantum forces between macroscopic objects of arbitrary shape, orientation and material composition have been studied. From a marriage of path integral quantization and scattering theory, a novel approach has been developed that yields a general formula for these interactions in terms of the scattering matrices of the individual objects. This formula has been applied successfully both analytically and numerically to obtain a plethora of new results for Casimir and van der Waals interactions that were inaccessibly before and are of utmost importance to recent experiments and presumably future applications in nanomechanical systems. The competition between quenched disorder and extended defect planes on the structural properties of (vortex) line lattices was studied by functional renormalization group. A defect plane was shown to be a relevant if it is oriented parallel to the lines as well as one of the main axis of the lattice. There has been a report in MIT news on the progress made on the computation and understanding of Casimir force within this project (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/casimir-0511.html).
Publications
- Casimir forces between arbitrary compact objects. Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 170403 (2007)
T. Emig, N. Graham, R. L. Jaffe, M. Kardar
- Fluctuation induced quantum interactions between compact objects and a plane mirror. J. Stat. Mech., P04007 (2008)
T. Emig
- Orientation dependence of Casimir forces. Phys. Rev. A 79, 054901 (2009)
T. Emig, N. Graham, R. L. Jaffe, M. Kardar
- Scattering Theory Approach to Electrodynamic Casimir Forces. Phys. Rev. D 80, 085021 (2009)
S. J. Rahi, T. Emig, N. Graham, R. L. Jaffe, M. Kardar
- Constraints on stable equilibria with fluctuation-induced forces. Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 070404 (2010)
S. J. Rahi, M. Kardar, T. Emig
- Analytical results on Casimir forces for conductors with edges and tips. PNAS 108, 6867 (2011)
M. F. Maghrebi, S. J.Rahi, T. Emig, N. Graham, R. L. Jaffe, M. Kardar
