In inhomogeneous dielectric media the divergence of the electromagnetic stress is related to the gradients of \varepsilon and μ, which is a consequence of Maxwell's equations. Investigating spherically symmetric media we show that this seemingly universal relationship is violated for electromagnetic vacuum forces such as the generalized van der Waals and Casimir forces. The stress needs to acquire an additional anomalous pressure. The anomaly is a result of renormalization, the need to subtract infinities in the stress for getting a finite, physical force. The anomalous pressure appears in the stress in media like dark energy appears in the energy-momentum tensor in general relativity. We propose and analyse an experiment to probe the van der Waals anomaly with ultracold atoms. The experiment may not only test an unusual phenomenon of quantum forces, but also an analogue of dark energy, shedding light where nothing is known empirically.
We predict a discriminatory interaction between a chiral molecule and an achiral molecule which is mediated by a chiral body. To achieve this, we generalize the van der Waals interaction potential between two ground-state molecules with electric, magnetic and chiral response to non-trivial environments. The force is evaluated using second-order perturbation theory with an effective Hamiltonian. Chiral media enhance or reduce the free interaction via many-body interactions, making it possible to measure the chiral contributions to the van der Waals force with current technology. The van der Waa…
We derive a first--principles method of determining the van der Waals or Casimir pressure in a dissipative and dispersive planar multilayered system by calculating the Maxwell stress tensor in a fictitious layer of vacuum, that is eventually made to vanish, introduced in the structure. This is illustrated by calculating the van der Waals pressure in a thin film with dissipative properties embedded between two semi--infinite media.
The van der Waals interaction between two polarizable atoms is considered. In three dimensions the standard form with an attractive $1/|R|^6$ potential is obtained from second-order quantum perturbation theory. When the electron motion is restricted to lower dimensions (but the $1/|R|$ Coulomb potential is retained), new terms in the expansion appear and alter both the sign and the $|R|$ dependence of the interaction.
Van der Waals layered materials are a focus of materials research as they support strong quantum effects and can easily form heterostructures. Electron spins in van der Waals materials played crucial roles in many recent breakthroughs, including topological insulators, two-dimensional (2D) magnets, and spin liquids. However, nuclear spins in van der Waals materials remain an unexplored quantum resource. Here we report the first demonstration of optical polarization and coherent control of nuclear spins in a van der Waals material at room temperature. We use negatively-charged boron vacancy ($V…
The universal aspects of atom-dimer elastic collisions are investigated within the framework of Faddeev equations. The two-body interactions between the neutral atoms are approximated by the separable potential approach. Our analysis considers a pure van der Waals potential tail as well as soft-core van der Waals interactions permitting us in this manner to address the universally general features of atom-dimer resonant spectra. In particular, we show that the atom-dimer resonances are solely associated with the {\it excited} Efimov states. Furthermore, the positions of the corresponding reson…
We study theoretically the van der Waals interaction between two atoms out of equilibrium with isotropic electromagnetic field. We demonstrate that at large interatomic separations, the van der Waals forces are resonant, spatially oscillating and non-reciprocal due to resonance absorption and emission of virtual photons. We suggest that the van der Waals forces can be controlled and manipulated by tuning the spectrum of artificially created random light.
The van der Waals interactions between two parallel graphitic nanowiggles (GNWs) are calculated using the coupled dipole method (CDM). The CDM is an efficient and accurate approach to determine such interactions explicitly by taking into account the discrete atomic structure. Our findings show that the van der Waals forces vary from attraction to repulsion as nanoribbons move along their lengths with respect to each other. This feature leads to a number of stable and unstable positions of the system during the movement process. These positions can be tuned by changing the length of GNW. Moreov…
The van der Waals interaction between two ground-state atoms is calculated for two electrically or magnetically polarizable particles embedded in a dispersive magneto-dielectric medium. Unlike previous calculations which infer the atom-atom interaction from the dilute-medium limit of the macroscopic, many-body van der Waals interaction, the interaction is calculated directly for the system of two atoms in a magneto-dielectric medium. Two approaches are presented, the first based on the quantized electromagnetic field in a dispersive medium without absorption and the second on Green functions t…
Assemblies of Rydberg atoms subject to resonant dipole-dipole interactions form Frenkel excitons. We show that van-der-Waals shifts can significantly modify the exciton wave function, whenever atoms approach each other closely. As a result, attractive excitons and repulsive van-der-Waals interactions can be combined to form stable one-dimensional atom chains, akin to bound aggregates. Here the van-der-Waals shifts ensure a stronger homogeneous delocalisation of a single excitation over the whole chain, enabling it to bind up to six atoms. When brought into unstable configurations, such Rydberg…
Time evolution of entanglement of N quantum dots is analyzed within the spin-1/2 van der Waals (or Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick) XY model. It is shown that, for a single dot initially excited and disentangled from the remaining unexcited dots, the maximum bipartite entanglement can be obtained in the systems of N=2,...,6 dots only.
We obtained new nonrelativistic expression for the dynamical van der Waals atom -surface interaction energy of very convenient form for different applications. It is shown that classical result (Ferrell and Ritchie, 1980) holds only for a very slowly moving atom. In general case, the van der Waals atom -surface interaction energy manifests strong nonlinear dependence on velocity and distance. In close vicinity of metal and dielectric surfaces and velocities from 1 to 10 Bohr units the dynamical van der Waals potential proves to be significantly lower that in static case and goes to the static …
We consider the the van der Waals force involving excited atoms in general environments, constituted by magnetodielectric bodies. We develop a dynamical approach studying the dynamics of the atoms and the field, mutually coupled. When only one atom is excited, our dynamical theory suggests that for large distances the van der Waals force acting on the ground-state atom is monotonic, while the force acting in the excited atom is spatially oscillating. We show how this latter force can be related to the known oscillating Casimir--Polder force on an excited atom near a (ground-state) body. Our fo…
Based on macroscopic quantum electrodynamics in linearly and causally responding media, we study the local-field corrected van der Waals potentials and forces for unpolarized ground-state atoms placed within a magnetoelectric medium of arbitrary size and shape. We start from general expressions for the van der Waals potentials in terms of the (classical) Green tensor of the electromagnetic field and the atomic polarizability and incorporate the local-field correction by means of the real-cavity model. In this context, special emphasis is given to the decomposition of the Green tensor into a me…
We compute the conservative van-der-Waals forces between two atoms, one of which is initially excited, in the limit of identical atoms. Starting with the perturbative calculation of the interaction between two dissimilar atoms, we show that a time-dependent approach in the weak-interaction approximation is essential in considering the identical atoms limit in the perturbative regime. In this limit we find that, at leading order, the van-der-Waals forces are fully-resonant and grow linearly in time, being different upon each atom. The resultant net force upon the two-atom system is related to t…
We study single- and two-atom van der Waals interactions of ground-state atoms which are both polarizable and paramagnetizable in the presence of magneto-electric bodies within the framework of macroscopic quantum electrodynamics. Starting from an interaction Hamiltonian that includes particle spins, we use leading-order perturbation theory for the van der Waals potentials expressed in terms of the polarizability and magnetizability of the atom(s). To allow for atoms embedded in media, we also include local-field corrections via the real-cavity model. The general theory is applied to the poten…
In this paper, dedicated to the career of Iver Brevik, we review the derivation of the retarded van der Waals or Casimir-Polder interaction between polarizable molecules from the general multiple scattering formulation of Casimir interactions between bodies. We then apply this van der Waals potential to examine the interaction between tenuous cylindrical bodies, including eccentric cylinders, and revisit the vanishing self-energy of a tenuous dielectric cylinder. In each case, closed-form expressions are obtained.
The Lifshitz-type formulas describing the free energy and the force of the van der Waals interaction between an atom (molecule) and a single-wall carbon nanotube are obtained. The single-wall nanotube is considered as a cylindrical sheet carrying a two-dimensional free electron gas with appropriate boundary conditions on the electromagnetic field. The obtained formulas are used to calculate the van der Waals free energy and force between a hydrogen atom (molecule) and single-wall carbon nanotubes of different radia. Comparison studies of the van der Waals interaction of hydrogen atoms with sin…
A new implementation is proposed for including van der Waals interactions in Density Functional Theory using the Maximally-Localized Wannier functions. With respect to the previous DFT/vdW-WF method, the present DFT/vdW-WF2 approach, which is based on the simpler London expression and takes into account the intrafragment overlap of the localized Wannier functions, leads to a considerable improvement in the evaluation of the $C_6$ van der Waals coefficients, as shown by the application to a set of selected dimers. Preliminary results on Ar on graphite and Ne on the Cu(111) metal surface suggest…
This Resource Letter provides a guide to the literature on van der Waals and Casimir-Polder forces. Journal articles, books, and other documents are cited on the following topics: van der Waals forces, retarded dispersion forces or Casimir-Polder forces between atoms or molecules, Casimir-Polder forces between a molecule and a dielectric or conducting body, the summation of Casimir-Polder forces as leading to the Casimir and Lifshitz forces between conducting and dielectric bodies, Casimir friction, applications to nanotechnology, the nature of the quantum vacuum, and experimental tests of the…
The van der Waals and Casimir interactions of a hydrogen atom (molecule) with a single-walled and a multiwalled carbon nanotubes are compared. It is shown that the macroscopic concept of graphite dielectric permittivity is already applicable for nanotubes with only two or three walls. The absorption of hydrogen atoms by a nanotube at separations below one nanometer is considered. The lateral force due to exchange repulsion moves the atom to a position above the cell center, where it is absorbed by the nanotube because the repulsive force cannot balance the van der Waals attraction.
