We present systematic measurements of the Casimir force between a gold-coated plate and a sphere coated with a Hydrogen Switchable Mirror (HSM). HSMs are shiny metals that can become transparent by hydrogenation. In spite of such a dramatic change of the optical properties of the sphere, we did not observe any significant decrease of the Casimir force after filling the experimental apparatus with hydrogen. This counterintuitive result can be explained by the Lifshitz theory that describes the Casimir attraction between metallic and dielectric materials.
Casimir forces between charge-neutral bodies originate from quantum vacuum fluctuations of electromagnetic fields, which exhibit a critical dependence on material's electromagnetic properties. Over the years, in-situ modulation of material's optical properties has been enabled through various means and has been widely exploited in a plethora of applications such as electro-optical modulation, transient color generation, bio- or chemical sensing, etc. Yet Casimir force modulation has been hindered by difficulty in achieving high modulation signals due to the broadband nature of the Casimir inte…
We show that the Casimir force between mirrors with arbitrary frequency dependent reflectivities obeys bounds due to causality and passivity properties. The force is always smaller than the Casimir force between two perfectly reflecting mirrors. For narrow-band mirrors in particular, the force is found to decrease with the mirrors bandwidth.
We reply to the "Comment on 'The Lifshitz-Matsubara sum formula for the Casimir pressure between magnetic metallic mirrors'" [arXiv:1604.06432]. We believe the comment misrepresents our papers, and fails to provide a plausible resolution to the conflict between theory and experiment.
In the present paper, we show that a partially reflecting static mirror with time-dependent properties can produce, via dynamical Casimir effect in the context of a massless scalar field in $1+1$ dimensions, a larger number of particles than a perfectly reflecting one. As particular limits, our results recover those found in the literature for a perfect static mirror imposing a generalized or an usual time-dependent Robin boundary condition.
We calculated the force of the quantum vacuum, the Casimir force, in a spherically symmetric medium, Maxwell's fish eye, surrounded by a perfect mirror and derived an exact analytic solution. Our solution questions the idea that the Casimir force of a spherical mirror is repulsive - we found an attractive force that diverges at the mirror.
We discuss the Casimir effect between two identical, parallel slabs, emphasizing the role of dissipation and temperature. Starting from quite general assumptions, we analyze the behavior of the Casimir entropy in the limit T->0 and link it to the behavior of the slab's reflection coefficients at low frequencies. We also derive a formula in terms of a sum over modes, valid for dissipative slabs that can be interpreted in terms of a damped quantum oscillator.
The Casimir force between dissipative metallic mirrors at non zero temperature has recently given rise to contradictory claims which have raised doubts about the theoretical expression of the force. In order to contribute to the resolution of this difficulty, we come back to the derivation of the force from basic principles of the quantum theory of lossy optical cavities. We obtain an expression which is valid for arbitrary mirrors, including dissipative ones, characterized by frequency dependent reflection amplitudes.
We calculate the Casimir force and free energy for plane metallic mirrors at non-zero temperature. Numerical evaluations are given with temperature and conductivity effects treated simultaneously. The results are compared with the approximation where both effects are treated independently and the corrections simply multiplied. The deviation between the exact and approximated results takes the form of a temperature dependent function for which an analytical expression is given. The knowledge of this function allows simple and accurate estimations at the % level.
We examine the conditions of validity for the Lifshitz-Matsubara sum formula for the Casimir pressure between magnetic metallic plane mirrors. As in the previously studied case of non-magnetic materials (Guerout et al, Phys. Rev. E 90 042125), we recover the usual expression for the lossy model of optical response, but not for the lossless plasma model. We also show that the modes associated with the Foucault currents play a crucial role in the limit of vanishing losses, in contrast to expectations.
We carefully re-examine the conditions of validity for the consistent derivation of the Lifshitz-Matsubara sum formula for the Casimir pressure between metallic plane mirrors. We recover the usual expression for the lossy Drude model, but not for the lossless plasma model. We give an interpretation of this new result in terms of the modes associated with the Foucault currents which play a role in the limit of vanishing losses, in contrast to common expectations.
The Casimir force can be understood as resulting from the radiation pressure exerted by the vacuum fluctuations reflected by boundaries. We extend this local formulation to the case of partially transmitting boundaries by introducing reflectivity and transmittivity coefficients obeying conditions of unitarity, causality and high frequency transparency. We show that the divergences associated with the infiniteness of the vacuum energy do not appear in this approach. We give explicit expressions for the Casimir force which hold for any frequency dependent scattering and any temperature. The corr…
We calculate the second order roughness correction to the Casimir energy for two parallel metallic mirrors. Our results may also be applied to the plane-sphere geometry used in most experiments. The metallic mirrors are described by the plasma model, with arbitrary values for the plasma wavelength, the mirror separation and the roughness correlation length, with the roughness amplitude remaining the smallest length scale for perturbation theory to hold. From the analysis of the intracavity field fluctuations, we obtain the Casimir energy correction in terms of generalized reflection operators,…
Moving mirrors are submitted to reaction forces by vacuum fields. The motional force is known to vanish for a single mirror uniformly accelerating in vacuum. We show that inertial forces (proportional to accelerations) arise in the presence of a second scatterer, exhibiting properties expected for a relative inertia: the mass corrections depend upon the distance between the mirrors, and each mirror experiences a force proportional to the acceleration of the other one. When the two mirrors move with the same acceleration, the mass correction obtained for the cavity represents the contribution t…
We study the influence of finite conductivity of metals on the Casimir effect. We put the emphasis on explicit theoretical evaluations which can help comparing experimental results with theory. The reduction of the Casimir force is evaluated for plane metallic plates. The reduction of the Casimir energy in the same configuration is also calculated. It can be used to infer the reduction of the force in the plane-sphere geometry through the `proximity theorem'. Frequency dependent dielectric response functions of the metals are represented either by the simple plasma model or, more accurately, b…
The moving-mirror problem is microscopically formulated without invoking the external boundary conditions. The moving mirrors are described by the quantized matter field interacting with the photon field, forming dynamical cavity polaritons: photons in the cavity are dressed by electrons in the moving mirrors. The effective Hamiltonian for the polariton is derived, and corrections to the results based on the external boundary conditions are discussed.
Electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations have observable consequences, like the Casimir force between mirrors in vacuum. This force is now measured with good accuracy and agreement with theory when the effect of imperfect reflection of mirrors is properly taken into account. We discuss the simple case of bulk metallic mirrors described by a plasma model and show that simple scaling laws are obtained at the limits of long and short distances. The crossover between the short and long-distance laws is quite similar to the crossover between Van der Waals and Casimir-Polder forces for two atoms in vacuu…
Recently Guerout et al. [Phys. Rev. E, v.93, 022108 (2016)] advocated that the lossless plasma model has to be redefined as the limit of the Drude model when the relaxation parameter goes to zero. It was claimed that the previously used plasma model cannot correctly describe the Casimir pressure between two plates made of both nonmagnetic and magnetic metals and has to be replaced with the redefined one. We show that the suggested redefinition does not satisfy necessary physical requirements imposed on the dielectric permittivity. We also present a plausible explanation to the fact that the lo…
We compute the Casimir energy of a real scalar field in the presence of a pair of partially transparent plane mirrors, modeled by Dirac delta potentials.
We extend our previous work on a derivative expansion for the Casimir energy, to the case of the electromagnetic field coupled to two thin, imperfect mirrors. The latter are described by means of vacuum polarization tensors localized on the mirrors. We apply the results so obtained to compute the first correction to the proximity force approximation to the static Casimir effect.
A "microscopic" justification of the "symmetric damping" model of a quantum oscillator with time-dependent frequency and time-dependent damping is given. This model is used to predict results of experiments on simulating the dynamical Casimir effect in a cavity with a photo-excited semiconductor mirror. It is shown that the most general bilinear time-dependent coupling of a selected oscillator (field mode) to a bath of harmonic oscillators results in two equal friction coefficients for the both quadratures, provided all the coupling coefficients are proportional to a single arbitrary function …
We investigate the Casimir force between two dissimilar plane mirrors the material properties of which are described by Drude or Lorentz models. We calculate analytically the short and long distance asymptote of the force and relate its behavior to the influence of interacting surface plasmons. In particular we discuss conditions under which Casimir repulsion could be achieved.
We study the Casimir interaction energy due to the vacuum fluctuations of the Electromagnetic (EM) field in the presence of two mirrors, described by $2+1$-dimensional, generally nonlocal actions, which may contain both parity-conserving and parity-breaking terms. We compare the results with the ones corresponding to Chern-Simons boundary conditions, and evaluate the interaction energy for several particular situations.
The Casimir effect is a force arising in the macroscopic world as a result of radiation pressure of vacuum fluctuations. It thus plays a key role in the emerging domain of nano-electro-mechanical systems (NEMS). This role is reviewed in the present paper, with discussions of the influence of the material properties of the mirrors, as well as the geometry dependence of the Casimir effect between corrugated mirrors. In particular, the lateral component of the Casimir force and restoring torque between metal plates with misaligned corrugations are evaluated.
We present a new derivation of the Casimir force between two parallel plane mirrors at zero temperature. The two mirrors and the cavity they enclose are treated as quantum optical networks. They are in general lossy and characterized by frequency dependent reflection amplitudes. The additional fluctuations accompanying losses are deduced from expressions of the optical theorem. A general proof is given for the theorem relating the spectral density inside the cavity to the reflection amplitudes seen by the inner fields. This density determines the vacuum radiation pressure and, therefore, the C…
We present a quantum description of photon creation via dynamical Casimir effect based on the standard Hamiltonian formulation. The particle representation is constructed in the expansion of field operators fixed with the initial modes. The Hamiltonian is presented in terms of the creation and annihilation operators with the time-varying couplings which originate from the external properties such as an oscillating boundary or a plasma mirror of a semiconductor slab. Some consideration is also made for the experimental realization with a semiconductor plasma mirror.
The generation of photons from the vacuum by means of the movement of a mirror is known as the dynamical Casimir effect (DCE). In general, this phenomenon is effectively described by a field with time-dependent boundary conditions. Alternatively, we consider a microscopic model of the DCE capable of reproducing the effect with no time-dependent boundary conditions. Besides the field, such a model comprises a subsystem modeling the mirror's internal structure. In this work, we study the most straightforward system for the mirror: a qubit moving in a cavity and coupled to one of the bosonic mode…
We consider a real massless scalar field in 1+1 dimensions satisfying time-dependent Robin boundary condition at a static wall. This condition can simulate moving reflecting mirrors whose motions are determined by the time-dependence of the Robin parameter. We show that particles can be created from vacuum, characterizing in this way a dynamical Casimir effect.
We demonstrate that a very recently obtained formula for the force on a slab in a material planar cavity based on the calculation of the vacuum Lorentz force [C. Raabe and D.-G. Welsch, Phys. Rev. A 71, 013814 (2005)] describes a (medium) screened Casimir force and, in addition to it, a medium-assisted force. The latter force also describes the force on the cavity medium. For dilute media, it implies the atom-mirror interaction of the Casimir-Polder type at large and of the Coulomb type at small atom-mirror distances of which the sign is insensitive to the polarizability type (electric or magn…
We present calculations of the quantum and thermal Casimir interaction between real mirrors in electromagnetic fields using the scattering approach. We begin with a pedagogical introduction of this approach in simple cases where the scattering is specular. We then discuss the more general case of stationary arbitrarily shaped mirrors and present in particular applications to two geometries of interest for experiments, that is corrugated plates and the plane-sphere geometry. The results nicely illustrate the rich correlations existing between material properties, temperature and geometry in the…
We review the theory of the Casimir effect using scattering techniques. After years of theoretical efforts, this formalism is now largely mastered so that the accuracy of theory-experiment comparisons is determined by the level of precision and pertinence of the description of experimental conditions. Due to an imperfect knowledge of the optical properties of real mirrors used in the experiment, the effect of imperfect reflection remains a source of uncertainty in theory-experiment comparisons. For the same reason, the temperature dependence of the Casimir force between dissipative mirrors rem…
We investigate, in the context of a real massless scalar field in $1+1$ dimensions, models of partially reflecting mirrors simulated by Dirac $δ-δ^{\prime}$ point interactions. In the literature, these models do not exhibit full transparency at high frequencies. In order to provide a more realistic feature for these models, we propose a modified $δ-δ^{\prime}$ point interaction that enables full transparency in the limit of high frequencies. Taking this modified $δ-δ^{\prime}$ model into account, we investigate the Casimir force, comparing our results with those found in the literature.
We study a quantum model of dynamical Casimir effect in an optical cavity enclosed by a freely moving mirror attached to a harmonic spring. The quantum fluctuations of the friction force exerted by the dynamical Casimir emission onto the moving mirror are investigated, as well as their consequences on the quantum state of the mirror oscillation. Observable signatures of the interplay of the nonlinear nature of the effective mirror-cavity coupling and of the discreteness of the emitted photons are pointed out, in particular as a fast diffusion of the mirror oscillation phase. These results are …
We study the Dynamical Casimir Effect resulting from the oscillatory motion of either one or two flat semitransparent mirrors, coupled to a quantum real and massless scalar field. Our approach is based on a perturbative evaluation, in the coupling between mirrors and field, of the corresponding effective action, which is used to compute the particle creation rate. The amplitude of the oscillation is not necessarily small. We first obtain results for a single mirror, both for non-relativistic and relativistic motions, showing that only for the latter the effects may be significant. For two mirr…
Quantum Optomechanics with Imperfect Mirrors and Casimir-Polder Effect of Atoms with Different Dynamic Polarizabilities: A Unified Treatment via a Microscopic Model
University of Maryland, College Park（马里兰大学帕克分校）；Joint Quantum Institute and Maryland Center for Fundamental Physics, University of Maryland, College Park（马里兰大学联合量子研究所与马里兰基础物理中心）
We calculate the Casimir interaction energy in $d=2$ spatial dimensions between two (zero-width) mirrors, one flat, and the other slightly curved, upon which {\em imperfect\/} conductor boundary conditions are imposed for an Electromagnetic (EM) field. Our main result is a second-order Derivative Expansion (DE) approximation for the Casimir energy, which is studied in different interesting limits. In particular, we focus on the emergence of a non-analyticity beyond the leading-order term in the DE, when approaching the limit of perfectly-conducting mirrors. We also show that the system conside…
Emphasizing first the utility of the generalized Fresnel coefficients in the theory of the Casimir effect in planar cavities, we complement our previous discussion of the ordinary Casimir force on and the Casimir stress in a metal (plasma) slab in a planar cavity. We demonstrate strong dependence of the Casimir stress in a thin slab on properties of the bounding medium in the symmetric Lifshitz configuration. Contrary to this, the stress in a thick slab gradually becomes insensitive on external boundary conditions. We also consider the position dependence of the Casimir force on and stress in …
An ultracold atom above a horizontal mirror experiences quantum reflection from the attractive Casimir-Polder interaction, which holds it against gravity and leads to quantum levitation states. We analyze this system by using a Liouville transformation of the Schrödinger equation and a Langer coordinate adapted to problems with a classical turning point. Reflection on the Casimir-Polder attractive well is replaced by reflection on a repulsive wall and the problem is then viewed as an ultracold atom trapped inside a cavity with gravity and Casimir-Polder potentials acting respectively as top an…
We study the optomechanical coupling of a oscillating effective mirror with a Rydberg atomic gas, mediated by the dynamical atom-mirror Casimir-Polder force. This coupling may produce a near-field resonant atomic excitation whose probability scales as $\propto (d^2\;a\;n^4\;t)^2/z_0^8$, where $z_0$ is the average atom-surface distance, $d$ the atomic dipole moment, $a$ the mirror's effective oscillation amplitude, $n$ the initial principal quantum number, and $t$ the time. We propose an experimental configuration to realize this system with a cold atom gas trapped at a distance $\sim 2\cdot10 …
We formulate the Babinet Principle (BP) as a relation between the scattering amplitudes for electromagnetic waves, and combine it with multiple scattering techniques to derive new properties of Casimir forces. We show that the Casimir force exerted by a planar conductor or dielectric on a self- complementary perforated planar mirror is approximately half that on a uniform mirror independent of the distance between them. The BP suggests that Casimir edge effects are anomalously small, supporting results obtained earlier in special cases. Finally, we illustrate how the BP can be used to estimate…
We use a functional approach to the Casimir effect in order to evaluate the exact vacuum energy for a real scalar field in $d+1$ dimensions, in the presence of backgrounds that, in a particular limit, impose Dirichlet boundary conditions on one or two parallel surfaces. Outside of that limit, the background may be thought of as describing finite-width mirrors with frequency-dependent transmission and reflection coefficients. We provide new explicit results for the Casimir energy in some particular backgrounds
We review the relation between Casimir effect and geometry, emphasizing deviations from the commonly used Proximity Force Approximation (PFA). We use to this aim the scattering formalism which is nowadays the best tool available for accurate and reliable theory-experiment comparisons. We first recall the main lines of this formalism when the mirrors can be considered to obey specular reflection. We then discuss the more general case where non planar mirrors give rise to non-specular reflection with wavevectors and field polarisations mixed. The general formalism has already been fruitfully use…
We study the Casimir energy due to a quantum real scalar field coupled to two planar, infinite, zero-width, parallel mirrors with non-homogeneous properties. These properties are represented, in the model we use, by scalar functions defined on each mirror's plane. Using the Gelfand-Yaglom's theorem, we construct a Lifshitz-like formula for the Casimir energy of such a system. Then we use it to evaluate the energy perturbatively, for the case of almost constant scalar functions, and also implementing a Derivative Expansion, under the assumption that the spatial dependence of the properties is s…
We explore an analogy between the thermodynamics of a free dissipative quantum particle and that of an electromagnetic field between two mirrors of finite conductivity. While a free particle isolated from its environment will effectively be in the high-temperature limit for any nonvanishing temperature, a finite coupling to the environment leads to quantum effects ensuring the correct low-temperature behavior. Even then, it is found that under appropriate circumstances the entropy can be a nonmonotonic function of the temperature. Such a scenario with its specific dependence on the ratio of te…
We calculate the Casimir energy for scalar and gauge fields in interaction with zero-width mirrors, including quantum effects due to the matter fields inside the mirrors. We consider models where those fields are either scalar or fermionic, obtaining general expressions for the energy as a function of the vacuum field 1PI function. We also study, within the frame of a concrete model, the role of the dissipation induced by those degrees of freedom, showing that, after integration of the matter fields, the effective theory for the electromagnetic field contains modes with complex energies. As fo…
We investigate the Casimir energy between two dissipative mirrors in term of a sum over mode formula which can be interpreted by analogy to a quantum dissipative oscillator. We also show that metamaterials engineered at scales between the nanometer and the micron seem a promising way to achieve a repulsive force.
After a short recall of our previous standing wave approach to the Casimir force problem, we consider Lifshitz's temperature Green's function method and its virtues from a physical point of view. Using his formula, specialized for perfectly reflecting mirrors, we present a quantitative discussion of the temperature effect on the attractive force.
We demonstrate that the Unruh-DeWitt harmonic-oscillator detectors in (1+1) dimensions derivative-coupled with a massless scalar field can mimic the atom mirrors in free space. Without introducing the Dirichlet boundary condition to the field, the reflectivity of our detector/atom mirror is dynamically determined by the interaction of the detector's internal oscillator and the field. When the oscillator-field coupling is strong, a broad frequency range of the quantum field can be mostly reflected by the detector mirror at late times. Constructing a cavity model with two such detector mirrors, …
After reviewing some essential features of the Casimir effect and, specifically, of its regularization by zeta function and Hadamard methods, we consider the dynamical Casimir effect (or Fulling-Davis theory), where related regularization problems appear, with a view to an experimental verification of this theory. We finish with a discussion of the possible contribution of vacuum fluctuations to dark energy, in a Casimir like fashion, that might involve the dynamical version.
We calculate the spectrum and the total rate of created particles for a real massless scalar field in $1+1$ dimensions, in the presence of a partially transparent moving mirror simulated by a Dirac $δ-δ^{\prime}$ point interaction. We show that, for this model, a partially reflecting mirror can produce a larger number of particles in comparison with a perfect one. In the limit of a perfect mirror, our formulas recover those found in the literature for the particle creation by a moving mirror with a Robin boundary condition.
This work deals with the problem of photon detection generated from the mirror-induced Dynamical Casimir Effect. Particularly we are interested in measurement of those statistical characteristics of a generated intracavity field which may confirm its nonthermal properties. Here an indirect protocol for quadrature dispersion measurement is presented.
We study the field theoretical model of a scalar field in presence of spacial inhomogeneities in form of one and two finite width mirrors (material slabs). The interaction of the scalar field with the defect is described with position-dependent mass term. Within this model we derive the interaction of two finite width mirrors, establish the correspondence of the model to the Lifshitz formula and construct limiting procedure to obtain finite self-energy of a single mirror without any normalization condition.
We investigate the effects of dynamical Casimir effect in superradiant light scattering by Bose-Einstein condensate in an optomechanical cavity. The system is studied using both classical and quantized mirror motions. The cavity frequency is harmonically modulated in time for both the cases. The main quantity of interest is the number of intracavity scattered photons. The system has been investigated under the weak and strong modulation. It has been observed that the amplitude of the scattered photons is more for the classical mirror motion than the quantized mirror motion. Also, initially, th…
The possibility in principle is shown that the noncompensated Casimir force can exist in nanosized open metal cavities. The force shows up as time-constant expulsion of open cavities toward their least opening. The optimal parameters of the angles of the opening, of "generating lines" of cavities and their lengths are found at which the expulsive force is maximal. The theory is created for trapezoid configurations, in particular for parallel mirrors which experience both the transverse Casimir pressure and longitudinal compression at zero general expulsive force.
We investigate the Casimir effect between two-dimensional electron systems driven to the quantum Hall regime by a strong perpendicular magnetic field. In the large separation (d) limit where retardation effects are essential we find i) that the Casimir force is quantized in units of 3\hbar c α^2/(8π^2 d^4), and ii) that the force is repulsive for mirrors with same type of carrier, and attractive for mirrors with opposite types of carrier. The sign of the Casimir force is therefore electrically tunable in ambipolar materials like graphene. The Casimir force is suppressed when one mirror is a ch…
The dynamics of three interacting objects has been investigated extensively in Newtonian gravitational physics (often termed the three-body problem), and is important for many quantum systems, including nuclei, Efimov states, and frustrated spin systems. However, the dynamics of three macroscopic objects interacting through quantum vacuum fluctuations (virtual photons) is still an unexplored frontier. Here, we report the first observation of Casimir interactions between three isolated macroscopic objects. We propose and demonstrate a three terminal switchable architecture exploiting opto-mecha…
