Towards a Theory of Molecular Forces between Deformed Media

A macroscopic theory for the molecular or Casimir interaction of dielectric materials with arbitrarily shaped surfaces is developed. The interaction is generated by the quantum and thermal fluctuations of the electromagnetic field which depend on the dielectric function of the materials. Using a path integral approach for the electromagnetic gauge field, we derive an effective Gaussian action which can be used to compute the force between the objects. No assumptions about the independence of the shape and material dependent contributions to the interaction are made. In the limiting case of flat surfaces our approach yields a simple and compact derivation of the Lifshitz theory for molecular forces. For ideal metals with arbitrarily deformed surfaces the effective action can be calculated explicitly. For the general case of deformed dielectric materials the applicability of perturbation theory and numerical techniques to the evaluation of the force from the effective action is discussed.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figur

Deformations of constant mean curvature 1/2 surfaces in H2xR with vertical ends at infinity

We study constant mean curvature 1/2 surfaces in H2xR that admit a compactification of the mean curvature operator. We show that a particular family of complete entire graphs over H2 admits a structure of infinite dimensional manifold with local control on the behaviors at infinity. These graphs also appear to have a half-space property and we deduce a uniqueness result at infinity. Deforming non degenerate constant mean curvature 1/2 annuli, we provide a large class of (non rotational) examples and construct (possibly embedded) annuli without axis, i.e. with two vertical, asymptotically rotational, non aligned ends.Comment: 35 pages. Addition of a half-space theore

An isogeometric finite element formulation for phase transitions on deforming surfaces

This paper presents a general theory and isogeometric finite element implementation for studying mass conserving phase transitions on deforming surfaces. The mathematical problem is governed by two coupled fourth-order nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) that live on an evolving two-dimensional manifold. For the phase transitions, the PDE is the Cahn-Hilliard equation for curved surfaces, which can be derived from surface mass balance in the framework of irreversible thermodynamics. For the surface deformation, the PDE is the (vector-valued) Kirchhoff-Love thin shell equation. Both PDEs can be efficiently discretized using $C^1$-continuous interpolations without derivative degrees-of-freedom (dofs). Structured NURBS and unstructured spline spaces with pointwise $C^1$-continuity are utilized for these interpolations. The resulting finite element formulation is discretized in time by the generalized-$\alpha$ scheme with adaptive time-stepping, and it is fully linearized within a monolithic Newton-Raphson approach. A curvilinear surface parameterization is used throughout the formulation to admit general surface shapes and deformations. The behavior of the coupled system is illustrated by several numerical examples exhibiting phase transitions on deforming spheres, tori and double-tori.Comment: fixed typos, extended literature review, added clarifying notes to the text, added supplementary movie file

Some monotonicity results for minimizers in the calculus of variations

We obtain monotonicity properties for minima and stable solutions of general energy functionals of the type $$\int F(\nabla u, u, x) dx$$ under the assumption that a certain integral grows at most quadratically at infinity. As a consequence we obtain several rigidity results of global solutions in low dimensions