We discuss a method that allows to compute the thermodynamic Casimir force at a given temperature in lattice models by performing a single Monte Carlo simulation. It is analogous to the one used by de Forcrand and Noth and de Forcrand, Lucini and Vettorazzo in the study of 't Hooft loops and the interface tension in SU(N) lattice gauge models in four dimensions. We test the method at the example of thin films in the XY universality class. In particular we simulate the improved two-component phi^4 model on the simple cubic lattice. This allows us to compare with our previous study, where we have computed the Casimir force by numerically integrating energy densities over the inverse temperature.
In a recent letter, Martin and Zagrebnov [Europhys. Lett., 73 (2006) 1] discussed the thermodynamic Casimir effect for the ideal Bose gas confined in a thin film. We point out that their findings can be expressed in terms of previous general results for the Casimir effect induced by confined critical fluctuations. This highlights the links between the Casimir effect in the contexts of critical phenomena and Bose-Einstein condensation.
The universal finite-size scaling function of the critical Casimir force for the three dimensional XY universality class with Dirichlet boundary conditions is determined using Monte Carlo simulations. The results are in excellent agreement with recent experiments on $^4$He Films at the superfluid transition and with available theoretical predictions.
We consider the decay of the thermodynamic Casimir force in phases with a finite correlation length. For the case of the strip, we use properties of low energy two-dimensional field theory to show that the decay depends on the symmetry properties of the boundary conditions, in distinctive ways that we determine exactly. Features characteristic of the bulk universality class may induce modifications that we also discuss. Symmetry breaking and symmetry preserving boundary conditions exchange their role with respect to the decay of the force when exchanging spontaneously broken with disordered ph…
We consider the three-dimensional Ising model in a $L_\perp \times L_\parallel \times L_\parallel$ cuboid geometry with finite aspect ratio $ρ= L_\perp/L_\parallel$ and periodic boundary conditions along all directions. For this model the finite-size scaling functions of the excess free energy and thermodynamic Casimir force are evaluated numerically by means of Monte Carlo simulations. The Monte Carlo results compare well with recent field theoretical results for the Ising universality class at temperatures above and slightly below the bulk critical temperature $T_\mathrm{c}$. Furthermore, th…
We study the fundamental limitations of cooling to absolute zero for a qubit, interacting with a single mode of the electromagnetic field. Our results show that the dynamical Casimir effect, which is unavoidable in any finite-time thermodynamic cycle, forbids the attainability of the absolute zero of temperature, even in the limit of an infinite number of cycles.
We study the thermodynamic Casimir force between a spherical object and a plate. We consider the bulk universality class of the three-dimensional Ising model, which is relevant for experiments on binary mixtures. To this end, we simulate the improved Blume-Capel model. Following Hucht, we compute the force by integrating energy differences over the inverse temperature. We demonstrate that these energy differences can be computed efficiently by using a particular cluster algorithm. Our numerical results for strongly symmetry breaking boundary conditions are compared with the Derjaguin approxima…
We study the thermodynamic Casimir effect in thin films in the three dimensional XY universality class. To this end, we simulate the improved two component phi^4 model on the simple cubic lattice. We use lattices up to the thickness L_0=33. Based on the results of our Monte Carlo simulations we compute the universal finite size scaling function theta that characterizes the behaviour of the thermodynamic Casimir force in the neighbourhood of the critical point. We confirm that leading corrections to the universal finite size scaling behaviour due to free boundary conditions can be expressed by …
Thermodynamic Casimir forces of film systems in the O$(n)$ universality classes with Dirichlet boundary conditions are studied below bulk criticality. Substantial progress is achieved in resolving the long-standing problem of describing analytically the pronounced minimum of the scaling function observed experimentally in $^4$He films $(n=2)$ by R. Garcia and M.H.W. Chan, Phys. Rev. Lett. ${\bf 83}, 1187 \;(1999)$ and in Monte Carlo simulations for the three-dimensional Ising model ($n=1$) by O. Vasilyev et al., EPL ${\bf 80}, 60009 \;(2007)$. Our finite-size renormalization-group approach yie…
The relation between the bulk correlation length and the decay length of thermodynamic Casimir forces is investigated microscopically in two three-dimensional systems undergoing Bose-Einstein condensation: the perfect Bose gas and the imperfect mean-field Bose gas. For each of these systems, both lengths diverge upon approaching the corresponding condensation point from the one-phase side, and are proportional to each other. We determine the proportionality factors and discuss their dependence on the boundary conditions. The values of the corresponding critical exponents for the decay length a…
When masless excitations are limited or modified by the presence of material bodies one observes a force atcing between them generally called Casimir force. Such excitations are present in any fluid system close to its true bulk critical point. We derive exact analytical results for both the temperature and external ordering field behavior of the thermodynamic Casimir force within the mean-field Ginzburg-Landau Ising type model of a simple fluid or binary liquid mixture. We investigate the case when under a film geometry the boundaries of the system exhibit strong adsorption onto one of the ph…
We study the thermodynamic Casimir force for films with various types of boundary conditions and the bulk universality class of the three-dimensional Ising model. To this end we perform Monte Carlo simulations of the improved Blume-Capel model on the simple cubic lattice. In particular, we employ the exchange or geometric cluster cluster algorithm [J.R. Heringa and H. W. J. Blöte, Phys. Rev. E 57, 4976 (1998)]. In a previous work we demonstrated that this algorithm allows to compute the thermodynamic Casimir force for the plate-sphere geometry efficiently. It turns out that also for the film g…
The limit n to infinity of the classical O(n) phi^4 model on a 3d film with free surfaces is studied. Its exact solution involves a self-consistent 1d Schrödinger equation, which is solved numerically for a partially discretized as well as for a fully discrete lattice model. Numerically exact results are obtained for the scaled Casimir force at all temperatures. Obtained via a single framework, they exhibit all relevant qualitative features of the thermodynamic Casimir force known from wetting experiments on Helium-4 and Monte Carlo simulations, including a pronounced minimum below the bulk cr…
When massless excitations are limited or modified by the presence of material bodies one observes a force acting between them generally called Casimir force. Such excitations are present in any fluid system close to its true bulk critical point. We derive exact analytical results for both the temperature and external ordering field behavior of the thermodynamic Casimir force within the mean-field Ginzburg-Landau Ising type model of a simple fluid or binary liquid mixture. We investigate the case when under a film geometry the boundaries of the system exhibit strong adsorption onto one of the p…
Recently a nonuniversal character of the leading spatial behavior of the thermodynamic Casimir force has been reported [X. S. Chen and V. Dohm, Phys. Rev. E {\bf 66}, 016102 (2002)]. We reconsider the arguments leading to this observation and show that there is no such leading nonuniversal term in systems with short-ranged interactions if one treats properly the effects generated by a sharp momentum cutoff in the Fourier transform of the interaction potential. We also conclude that lattice and continuum models then produce results in mutual agreement independent of the cutoff scheme, contrary …
We study the thermodynamic Casimir force for films in the three-dimensional Ising universality class with symmetry breaking boundary conditions. We focus on the effect of corrections to scaling and probe numerically the universality of our results. In particular we check our hypothesis that corrections are well described by an effective thickness L_{0,eff}=L_0+c (L_0+L_s)^{1-ω} +L_s, where c and L_s are system specific parameters and ω\approx 0.8 is the exponent of the leading bulk correction. We simulate the improved Blume-Capel model and the Ising model on the simple cubic lattice. First we …
We discuss the relation of the specific heat, the energy density and the thermodynamic Casimir effect in the case of thin films in the three dimensional XY universality class. The finite size scaling function $θ(x)$ of the thermodynamic Casimir force can be expressed in terms of the scaling functions h'(x) and h(x) of the excess energy density and the excess free energy density. A priori these quantities depend on the reduced temperature t and the thickness L_0 of the film. However finite size scaling theory predicts that the scaling functions depend only on the combination x=t [L_0/ξ_0]^{1/ν}…
We consider systems with slab geometry of finite thickness L that undergo second order phase transitions in the bulk limit and belong to the universality class of O(n)-symmetric systems with short-range interactions. In these systems the critical fluctuations at the bulk critical temperature T_c induce a long-range effective force called the "thermodynamic Casimir force". We describe the systems in the framework of the O(n)-symmetric phi^4-model, restricting us to the large-n limit n->infty. In this limit the physically relevant case of three space dimensions d=3 can be treated analytically in…
Systems with an O(n) symmetrical Hamiltonian are considered in a $d$-dimensional slab geometry of macroscopic lateral extension and finite thickness $L$ that undergo a continuous bulk phase transition in the limit $L\to\infty$. The effective forces induced by thermal fluctuations at and above the bulk critical temperature $T_{c,\infty}$ (thermodynamic Casimir effect) are investigated below the upper critical dimension $d^*=4$ by means of field-theoretic renormalization group methods for the case of periodic and special-special boundary conditions, where the latter correspond to the critical en…
The finite-size renormalization-group approach for isotropic O$(n)$-symmetric systems introduced previously [V. Dohm, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 110}, 107207 (2013)] is extended to weakly anisotropic O$(n)$-symmetric systems. Our theory is formulated within the $φ^4$ model with lattice anisotropy in a $d$-dimensional block geometry with periodic boundary conditions. It describes the crossover from low- to high-temperature fluctuations including Goldstone-dominated and critical fluctuations for $1\leq n \leq \infty$ in $2<d<4$ dimensions. An exact representation is derived for the large-distance beh…
We study the thermodynamic Casimir force for films in the three-dimensional Ising universality class with symmetry breaking boundary conditions. To this end we simulate the improved Blume-Capel model on the simple cubic lattice. We study the two cases ++, where all spins at the boundary are fixed to +1 and +-, where the spins at one boundary are fixed to +1 while those at the other boundary are fixed to -1. An important issue in analyzing Monte Carlo and experimental data are corrections to scaling. Since we simulate an improved model, leading corrections to scaling, which are proportional to …
We study the behavior of the critical Casimir force and its interplay with the van der Waals force acting between two parallel slabs separated at a distance $L$ from each other confining a non-polar simple fluid or a binary liquid mixture. The surfaces of the slabs are coated by thin layers exerting strong preference to the liquid phase of the fluid, or one of the components of the mixture. The slabs influence the fluid by long-range competing dispersion potentials. Under such conditions one usually expects {\it attractive} Casimir force governed by universal scaling function to which the disp…
We study the crossover from the ordinary to the normal surface universality class in the three-dimensional Ising universality class. This crossover is relevant for the behavior of films of binary mixtures near the demixing point and a weak adsorption at one or both surfaces. We perform Monte Carlo simulations of the improved Blume-Capel model on the simple cubic lattice. We consider systems with film geometry, where various boundary conditions are applied. We discuss corrections to scaling that are caused by the surfaces and their relation with the so called extrapolation length. To this end w…
We study the crossover from low- to high-temperature fluctuations including critical fluctuations in confined isotropic O$(n)$-symmetric systems on the basis of a finite-size renormalization-group approach at fixed dimension $d$ introduced previously [V. Dohm, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 110}, 107207 (2013)]. Our theory is formulated within the $φ^4$ lattice model in a $d$-dimensional block geometry with periodic boundary conditions. We derive the finite-size scaling functions $F^{\text ex}$ and $X$ of the excess free energy density and of the thermodynamic Casimir force, respectively, for $1\leq n …
We analyze the thermodynamic Casimir effect occurring in a gas of non-interacting bosons confined by two parallel walls with a strongly anisotropic dispersion inherited from an underlying lattice. In the direction perpendicular to the confining walls the standard quadratic dispersion is replaced by the term $|{\bf p}|^α$ with $α\geq 2$ treated as a parameter. We derive a closed, analytical expression for the Casimir force depending on the dimensionality $d$ and the exponent $α$, and analyze it for thermodynamic states in which the Bose-Einstein condensate is present. For $α\in\{4,6,8,\dots\}$ …
We numerically test an experimentally realizable method for the extraction of the critical Casimir force based on its thermodynamic definition as the derivative of the excess free energy with respect to system size. Free energy differences are estimated for different system sizes by integrating the order parameter along an isotherm. The method could be developed for experiments on magnetic systems and could give access to the critical Casimir force for any universality class. By choosing an applied field that opposes magnetic ordering at the boundaries, the Casimir force is found to increase b…
Universal aspects of the thermodynamic Casimir effect in wetting films of 3He-4He mixtures near their bulk tricritical point are studied within suitable models serving as representatives of the corresponding universality class. The effective forces between the boundaries of such films arising from the confinement are calculated along isotherms at several fixed concentrations of 3He. Nonsymmetric boundary conditions impose nontrivial concentration profiles leading to repulsive Casimir forces which exhibit a rich behavior of the crossover between the tricritical point and the line of critical po…
It is demonstrated that the general theory of Casimir and van der Waals forces describes the interaction-induced equilibrium thermodynamic potentials of the damped harmonic oscillator bilinearly coupled to the environment. An extended model for a damped oscillator is suggested along the lines of the general theory of Casimir and van der Waals forces, and the corresponding thermodynamic quantities obtained. While the original model involves a heat bath consisting of a large number of free oscillators having infinitesimal damping functions, the extended model allows any generally admissible freq…
The classical $n$-vector $ϕ^4$ model with $O(n)$ symmetrical Hamiltonian ${\cal H}$ is considered in a $\infty^2\times L$ slab geometry bounded by a pair of parallel free surface planes at separation $L$. The temperature-dependent scaling functions of the excess free energy and the thermodynamic Casimir force are computed in the large-$n$ limit for temperatures $T$ at, above, and below the bulk critical temperature $T_{\rm c}$. Their $n=\infty$ limits can be expressed exactly in terms of the eigensystem of a self-consistent one-dimensional Schrödinger equation. This equation is solved by numer…
Recently, Brevik et al. [Phys. Rev. E 71, 056101 (2005)] adduced arguments against the traditional approach to the thermal Casimir force between real metals and in favor of one of the alternative approaches. The latter assumes zero contribution from the transverse electric mode at zero frequency in qualitative disagreement with unity as given by the thermal quantum field theory for ideal metals. Those authors claim that their approach is consistent with experiments as well as with thermodynamics. We demonstrate that these conclusions are incorrect. We show specifically that their results are c…
Using quasi-exact numerical density-matrix renormalization-group techniques we calculate the critical Casimir force for a two-dimensional (2D) Ising strip with equal strong surface fields, along the thermodynamic paths corresponding to the fixed nonzero bulk field h<>0. Using the Derjaguin approximation we also determine the critical Casimir force and its potential for two discs. We find that varying the temperature along the iso-fields lying between the bulk coexistence and the capillary condensation critical point leads to a dramatic increase of the critical Casimir interactions with a quali…
We study the Casimir effect in the vicinity of a quantum critical point. As a prototypical system we analyze the $d$-dimensional imperfect (mean-field) Bose gas enclosed in a slab of extension $L^{d-1}\times D$ and subject to periodic boundary conditions. The thermodynamic state is adjusted so that $L\ggλ\gg D\ggł_{mic}$, where $λ\sim T^{-1/2}$ is the thermal de Broglie length, and $l_{mic}$ denotes microscopic lengthscales. Our exact analysis indicates that the Casimir force in the above specified regime is generically repulsive and decays either algebraically or exponentially, with a non-uni…
We calculate the Casimir energy and entropy for two perfect metal spheres in the large and short separation limit. We obtain nonmonotonic behavior of the Helmholtz free energy with separation and temperature, leading to parameter ranges with negative entropy, and also nonmonotonic behavior of the entropy with temperature and with the separation between the spheres. The appearance of this anomalous behavior of the entropy is discussed as well as its thermodynamic consequences.
Some time ago, Fisher and de Gennes pointed out that long-ranged correlations in a fluid close to its critical point Tc cause distinct forces between immersed colloidal particles which can even lead to flocculation [C. R. Acad. Sc. Paris B 287, 207 (1978)]. Here we calculate such forces between pairs of spherical particles as function of both relevant thermodynamic variables, i.e., the reduced temperature t = (T-Tc)/Tc and the field h conjugate to the order parameter. This provides the basis for specific predictions concerning the phase behavior of a suspension of colloidal particles in a near…
We review recent results obtained in the physics of the thermal Casimir force acting between two dielectrics, dielectric and metal, and between metal and semiconductor. The detailed derivation for the low-temperature behavior of the Casimir free energy, pressure and entropy in the configuration of two real dielectric plates is presented. For dielectrics with finite static dielectric permittivity it is shown that the Nernst heat theorem is satisfied. Hence, the Lifshitz theory of the van der Waals and Casimir forces is demonstrated to be consistent with thermodynamics. The nonzero dc conductivi…
We analyze the Casimir forces for an ideal Bose gas enclosed between two infinite parallel walls separated by the distance D. The walls are characterized by the Dirichlet boundary conditions. We show that if the thermodynamic state with Bose-Einstein condensate present is correctly approached along the path pertinent to the Dirichlet b.c. then the leading term describing the large-distance decay of thermal Casimir force between the walls is 1/D^2 with a non-universal amplitude. The next order correction is lnD/D^3. These observations remain in contrast with the decay law for both the periodic …
We consider an ideal Bose gas enclosed in a $d$-dimensional slab of thickness $D$. Using the grand canonical ensemble we calculate the variance of the thermal Casimir force acting on the slab's walls. The variance evaluated per unit wall area is shown to decay like $ Δ_{var}/D$ for large $D$. The amplitude $ Δ_{var}$ is a non-universal function of two scaling variables $λ/ ξ$ and $D/ ξ$, where $λ$ is the thermal de Broglie wavelength and $ξ$ is the bulk correlation length. It can be expressed via the bulk pressure, the Casimir force per unit wall area, and its derivative with respect to chemic…
The physical reasons why the Drude dielectric function is not compatible with the Lifshitz formula, as opposed to the generalized plasma-like permittivity, are presented. Essentially, the problem is connected with the finite size of metal plates. It is shown that the Lifshitz theory combined with the generalized plasma-like permittivity is thermodynamically consistent.
We analyze the high temperature (or classical) limit of the Casimir effect. A useful quantity which arises naturally in our discussion is the ``relative Casimir energy", which we define for a configuration of disjoint conducting boundaries of arbitrary shapes, as the difference of Casimir energies between the given configuration and a configuration with the same boundaries infinitely far apart. Using path integration techniques, we show that the relative Casimir energy vanishes exponentially fast in temperature. This is consistent with a simple physical argument based on Kirchhoff's law. As a …
It was recently found that thermodynamic anomalies which arise in the Casimir effect between metals described by the Drude model can be attributed to the interaction of fluctuating Foucault (or eddy) currents [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 130405 (2009)]. We show explicitly that the two leading terms of the low-temperature correction to the Casimir free energy of interaction between two plates, are identical to those pertaining to the Foucault current interaction alone, up to a correction which is very small for good metals. Moreover, a mode density along real frequencies is introduced, showing that t…
We study the crossover between thermodynamic Casimir forces arising from long-range fluctuations due to Goldstone modes and those arising from critical fluctuations. Both types of forces exist in the low-temperature phase of O$(n)$ symmetric systems for $n>1$ in a $d$-dimensional ${L_\parallel^{d-1} \times L}$ slab geometry with a finite aspect ratio $ρ= L/L_\parallel$. Our finite-size renormalization-group treatment for periodic boundary conditions describes the entire crossover from the Goldstone regime with a nonvanishing constant tail of the finite-size scaling function far below $T_c$ up …
For the first time we present analytical results for the contribution of electromagnetic fluctuations into thermodynamic properties of modulated systems, like cholesteric or smectic liquid crystalline films. In the case of small dielectric anisotropy we have derived explicit analytical expressions for the chemical potential of such systems. Two limiting cases were specifically considered: (i) the Van der Waals (VdW) limit, i.e., in the case when the retardation of the electromagnetic interactions can be neglected; and (ii) the Casimir limit, i.e. when the effects of retardation becomes conside…
We consider the Bose gas on a $d$-dimensional anisotropic lattice employing the imperfect (mean-field) gas as a prototype example. We study the dimensional crossover arising as a result of varying the dispersion relation at finite temperature $T$. We analyze in particular situations where one of the relevant effective dimensionalities is located at or below the lower critical dimension, so that the Bose-Einstein condensate becomes expelled from the system by anisotropically modifying the lattice parameters controlling the kinetic term in the Hamiltonian. We clarify the mechanism governing this…
We develop a theory to probe the effect of non-equilibrium fluctuation-induced forces on the size of a polymer confined between two horizontal thermally conductive plates subject to a constant temperature gradient, $\nabla T$. We assume that (a) the solvent is good and (b) the distance between the plates is large so that in the absence of a thermal gradient the polymer is a coil whose size scales with the number of monomers as $N^ν$, with $ν\approx 0.6$. We predict that above a critical temperature gradient, $\nabla T_c \sim N^{-\frac{5}{4}}$, favorable attractive monomer-monomer interaction d…
The Casimir force has been computed exactly for only a few simple geometries, such as infinite plates, cylinders, and spheres. We show that a parabolic cylinder, for which analytic solutions to the Helmholtz equation are available, is another case where such a calculation is possible. We compute the interaction energy of a parabolic cylinder and an infinite plate (both perfect mirrors), as a function of their separation and inclination, $H$ and $θ$, and the cylinder's parabolic radius $R$. As $H/R\to 0$, the proximity force approximation becomes exact. The opposite limit of $R/H\to 0$ correspo…
In a recent study [Phys. Rev. E \textbf{94}, 022103 (2016)] it has been shown that, for a fluid film subject to critical adsorption, the resulting critical Casimir force (CCF) may significantly depend on the thermodynamic ensemble. Here, we extend that study by considering fluid films within the so-called ordinary surface universality class. We focus on mean-field theory, within which the OP profile satisfies Dirichlet boundary conditions and produces a nontrivial CCF in the presence of external bulk fields or, respectively, a nonzero total order parameter within the film. Our analytical resul…
We give a comprehensive presentation of methods for calculating the Casimir force to arbitrary accuracy, for any number of objects, arbitrary shapes, susceptibility functions, and separations. The technique is applicable to objects immersed in media other than vacuum, to nonzero temperatures, and to spatial arrangements in which one object is enclosed in another. Our method combines each object's classical electromagnetic scattering amplitude with universal translation matrices, which convert between the bases used to calculate scattering for each object, but are otherwise independent of the d…
In any medium there are fluctuations due to temperature or due to the quantum nature of its constituents. If a material body is immersed into such a medium, its shape and the properties of its constituents modify the properties of the surrounding medium and its fluctuations. If in the same medium there is a second body then -- in addition to all direct interactions between them -- the modifications due to the first body influence the modifications due to the second body. This mutual influence results in a force between these bodies. If the excitations of the medium, which mediate the effective…
