Shape and material effects in Casimir forces

ORAL

Abstract

Casimir forces depend non-trivially on shape and material properties. Using ideas from electromagnetic scattering theory and conformal mappings, we have derived a number of novel analytical and numerical results for Casimir interactions. We shall give a brief overview of the general approach and present explicit results for some generic examples, including short- and long-distance expansions, interaction of perfect conductors with sharp edges and tips, and exact solutions in two and three dimensions. The predictions are compared to recent experiments.

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Authors

  • Thorsten Emig

    LPTMS, CNRS and Universite Paris-Sud, UMR8626, 91405 Orsay, France, Universite Paris Sud

  • Giuseppe Bimonte

    Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche, Universit\`a di Napoli Federico II, Via Cintia, 80126 Napoli, Italy

  • Mohammad Maghrebi

    Physics Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139

  • Noah Graham

    Department of Physics, Middlebury College Middlebury, VT 05753, Middlebury College

  • Robert Jaffe

    MIT, Center for Theoretical Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Mehran Kardar

    Physics Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT